A Heart of Ed
by Mr. Dusk
Summary: Years after BPS, the Eds are living peacefully with their friends in their small home in the Cul-De-Sac. But after strange dreams and an even stranger storm, the Eds are thrown into a new adventure. This time with the strange, yet awesome weapons called "keyblades". hostile monsters called "Heartless", and an incredible journey that'll involve travel to many different worlds.
1. As if They Were Dreaming

Falling. That's what it felt like.

The three youths known as Ed, Edd, and Eddy felt like they were falling for an absurd amount of time into an abyss of darkness.

Knowing not where they were going to, none of them remembering where they came from or how they got to this point. All they could remember was who they were.

Ed was the tallest of them, he had short red hair, sage green eyes, yellow toned skin, and a unibrow. He wore an army green bomber jacket (even though it was summertime), with a grey shirt underneath that had a sketch of skulls with bat-like wings and the words " Bat Country" in red behind them. He also wore dark blue baggy jeans, and black converse sneakers. Ed was mostly looked at as the most dim-witted as the Eds due to him speaking more slowly and less often and because of his low test scores, even though he has improved much in school thanks to tutoring from his friend Edd.

Speaking of which, Edd (Or Double-D as h is friends called him) was the most intelligent of the three, he was skinny, shorter than Ed, had pale skin, calm grey eyes, and jet black hair that went to the middle of his neck. Edd's attire consisted of a white dress shirt, khakis, and brown dress shoes. He once had a black toque hat that he wore a whole year, but he has since gotten rid of it. Edd was often looked as the most unstable of the three, due to him getting easily frustrated and stressed out at times but he has been working on becoming more calm, although his constant arguments between him and his pal Eddy keeps bringing out the worst in him.

Eddy was still relatively shorter than Ed, but these days he's catching up due to his late growth spurt, he had a pinkish pigment to his skin, warm amber eyes, and had short dark hair in a mohawk. Due to him getting taller, Eddy had went through his wardrobe full of clothes his parents gave him (mostly hand-me-downs from his older brother) to find clothes that fit, he found himself comfortable with a yellow and black track jacket over a black tank top and jeans that were pre-ripped in places for style, he also wore red Nikes. Eddy was the most self-confident of the Eds, who was once avoided by others due to his bad attitude but ever since that fateful summer two years ago, Eddy has turned a new leaf on life. Though he still has a bit of a short fuse and his stubbornness often gets him into trouble.

The three found themselves surrounded in darkness, flashbacks of their everyday lives flashing before their eyes. They all felt light-headed, as if they were dreaming. They finally felt that they had stopped falling, and now stood on what seemed to be a platform. The platform itself was bright and colorful, it looked as though it was made out of green stained glass. There was a motif in the middle, of what appeared as the sun.

"Where are we?" Ed asked out loud in wonder and amazement, he looked around the empty platform.

"I'm not sure, I think we were doing something...but what was it?" Edd asked.

Eddy was walking around the platform, he put his hands behind his head, "I don't remember."

"_So much to do..."_

"Huh? Did you say something?" Eddy asked Edd. Edd shook his head.

"_So little time..."_

The Eds turned their heads this way and that, looking for the source of the voice they were hearing.

"I'm not the only one hearing that, am I?" Eddy asked.

"No, I hear it too." Edd told him.

"Me three!" Ed joined in.

"_Take your time, don't be afraid."_

"Afraid of what? I'm not afraid of anything!" Eddy yelled out.

"Eddy, you're yelling at a disembodied voice that's in our heads, I'm not sure it can hear you."

"_The door is still shut."_

There was a loud rumbling, and three pillars appeared near the Eds who stood at the center of the platform. On one pillar was a sword that was pierced into its pillar with power, on another pillar was a staff that stood up straight with diligence, and on the last pillar was a shield that rested calmly with content.

"_Power sleeps within you. If you give it form, it will give you strength. Choose well."_

The Eds each looked at the pillars one b y one and then looked at each other. Ed d y quickly ran to the sword, calling dibs. Edd calmly went to the staff, feeling that it was much more dignified. Ed slid over to the shield, knowing that the sword was cooler but not really minding having the shield instead. All three took hold of their new weapons, and the weapons suddenly vanished, and in their place were the most peculiar things. They looked like keys, large keys, but they had blades instead of teeth.

"_Keyblade"_

The word was heard by the three Eds.

"_Keyblade?_ What kind of stupid name is_ that_?" Eddy's keyblade was silver with a yellow colored handle. It had a keychain in the form of three stars.

"Well, it _is_ a key with a blade, if that makes any sense." Edd's keyblade was shorter than Eddy's, it was also silver but it had a red colored handle. It had a keychain in the form of a crescent moon.

"This is so COOL! Think I can take it home with me?" Ed's keyblade was longer than Eddy's, it too was silver but it had a green colored handle. It had a keychain in the form of a sun.

Suddenly, the platform began to shake, and the pillars started to fall.

"Hey, what's-"

The platform shattered, and all three Eds fell into the abyss, screaming all the way.

* * *

The three fell through darkness, and landed on another platform, this one made out of red stained glass. There was a motif in the middle in the shape of a crescent moon. The Eds stood up, and their keyblades appeared in their hands.

"_You've all gained the power to fight, use this power to protect yourselves and others."_

"Hey, look!" Ed pointed at the platform below them, some kind of black shadow rose up into a small feral looking creature with stubby limbs, glowing eyes, and antennae. Then another appeared, and another. They had hostile movements.

"_There will be times where you have to fight. Keep your light burning strong."_

One of the creatures lunged at Edd.

"Double-D! Look out!" Ed ran up and smashed the creature with his keyblade. The creature vanished. Edd and Eddy took note of this, and the two joined Ed in getting rid of the rest of the creatures . More of them showed up.

"This doesn't bode well." Edd said out loud.

The Eds kept fighting the shadowed creatures, but it didn't seem to end. Then, the creatures sank into the platform and turned into pure shadows. The darkness of the shadows swallowed the Eds.

* * *

"_The day you three will open the door is both far off and very near."_

* * *

The Eds found themselves on yet another platform, this one made out of yellow stained glass. There was a motif in the middle in the shape of three distant stars. More of the shadow creatures appeared on the platform.

"Payback time! Let's get 'em!" Eddy drew his keyblade and swiped away one of the creatures, Ed and Edd joined him in dispatching the rest. Once they were all gone, a pathway to another platform appeared from light. The light hovered above the new platform.

"...well, what are we waiting for?" Eddy started to run up the path with the other Eds following in suit.

"Careful Eddy, we don't know what's up ahead!" Edd warned him.

"Don't worry Double-D! I'm sure we can handle anything with these awesome keys! " Ed assured him.

The three got on top of the platform, this one made out of pure white stained glass. The three walked under where the light was shining.

"_The closer you are to the light, the greater your shadows become."_

Edd looked behind him, "Um...fellows?" he said softly, the other Eds turned their heads and saw how big their shadows became. The shadows started to rise up. The Eds backed up a bit as their giant shadows arose.

"_But don't be afraid."_

The shadows then started to join into an even more huge and grotesque looking figure that towered over the Eds. This shadow sported huge muscles, wings , and what looked like tentacles instead of hair that obscured all of its face except for its glowing, bright eyes. The shadows from before looked minuscule compared to this abomination, and while they seemed to simply be beings of darkness with hostile intentions, this was a being of pure evil.

"_And don't forget..."_

The Eds ran back to the pathway that led them there, but it was gone.

"We can't fight THIS! This is STUPID!" Eddy yelled in frustration.

The giant shadow reached out towards the Eds.

"YAH! GET AWAY!" Eddy swung his keyblade at the hand. The keyblade struck it, and the monster drew its hand back in pain.

Edd noticed this, "Eddy, you managed to hurt it! We may have a chance!"

Ed ran up to the giant shadow monster, keyblade swung back, "I AM ED! HEAR ME ROAR!"

Ed took a swing at the monster's head, and it took damage. The monster then drew its hand back and smashed it on the platform, causing a dark portal to form, and the shadow creatures from earlier came out of it. Edd and Eddy started taking care of these smaller creatures while Ed focused on the giant one.

Things were going well, Edd and Eddy got rid of the smaller shadows and assisted Ed with the giant one.

"We're doing it! We can beat it! WE CAN BEAT IT!" Eddy was yelling.

Then, the keyblades vanished from the Eds' hands.

"Not good!" Edd yelled, the giant monster placed both hands on the platform, the force knocking the three Eds back. The monster shadow got close to them.

"_But don't be afraid."_

Beneath the Eds was a dark portal, same as the one that the smaller creatures came out of. Darkness came out of these portals, and wrapped itself around the Eds.

"_You each hold the mightiest weapon of them all."_

The Eds couldn't move. Eddy saw Ed and Edd being dragged down into the portal, their screams being swallowed by the darkness.

"_So don't forget..."_

Eddy's vision became obscured by the darkness.

"_You three are the ones who will open the door"._


	2. Unlikely, but Possible

Sunlight, it was nice and warm.

The darkness was gone.

Ed, Edd, and Eddy were waking up and their eyes were refocusing.

The sunlight beamed down on them, high up in the blue sky without a cloud in sight.

The sand felt nice.

"_Wait, sand?" _Edd got up, brushing the sand off of his back, "Great, I've ruined another shirt..." he said in disgust as he mumbled about how filthy his shirt was. The three had been sleeping in the sandbox that was in the playground in the neighborhood. Ed yawned and started rubbing his eyes. Eddy got up too, his eyes seeing someone that was in front of the three.

"What are you guys doing?" asked Kevin, a friend of the Eds. He was wearing an orange sleeveless shirt with black shorts and black Adidas shoes. His short red hair peeking a bit out of his trademarked red baseball cap that he wore backwards and sprouting from his chin in a goatee, his light brown eyes were covered by flat black sunglasses. Kevin had never gotten along with the Eds up until two years ago. After getting to finally know them, Kevin found that he and the Eds were really not that different, even though he and Eddy still liked competing against one another.

The Eds all got up, slightly embarrassed to be seen in a sandbox. "Uh...nothing?" the three told Kevin. Kevin laughed, feeling a bit of déjà vu, "Yeah, alright. You guys still coming to Nazz's party later?"

Eddy smirked, "Yeah, wouldn't miss it for the world! First party of the summer, right boys?" Eddy put his arms around Ed and Edd who both agreed.

"Cool, you guys mind heading over there now? Nazz still needs help setting up and I said I'd get some more chips."

"We wouldn't mind helping out." Edd calmly said.

"Yeah, what, we just gotta set up a couple of sprinklers and the pool?" Eddy asked.

Kevin got on his customized bicycle, "Something like that, see you guys there!" Kevin rode off on his bike.

"Bye Kevin!" Ed yelled while waving. It wasn't long until Kevin was out of sight.

Edd finally spoke up, "So...well...um..." Edd rubbed his chin with his thumb on the underside and his index finger rubbing the topside, lost in thought.

"What is it Double-D?" Ed asked.

"I'm trying to find the right words...I don't want to sound crazy, but did either of you two had a strange dream?"

Ed nodded, "Oh yeah! Last night I was dreaming I was in my happy place and then Sarah-"

"No, no, no, not last night! I mean, well, just now."

"Oh! Yeah! We were heroes and we were fighting shadow monsters and-"

"Wait, you had that too?" Eddy asked, surprised to hear Ed remember the dream he had.

"You too Eddy?" Edd asked him, Eddy nodded.

"It was as strange as dreams can get, some huge THING tried to swallow us up! I couldn't move, I couldn't do anything to help you guys I-"

"This is certainly peculiar, I had that same dream." Edd told them.

There was a silence for a few seconds.

"Wait, what?" Eddy asked, holding his arms out with the look of confusion.

"I'm just as confused as you are Eddy. Scientifically, it shouldn't be possible, as quite a few psychological studies say-" Edd had lost the two's attention after the word "scientifically" so he paused for a bit.

"Ahem, to make a long story short, no two people can have the same exact dream as they are personalized to each person."

Ed and Eddy shrugged and nodded, getting the gist of it.

"I may have to look into this later..."

"But Double-D! What about Nazz's party?" Ed asked.

"Yeah Double-D, did you forget already?" Eddy joked.

Edd sighed, "Very well, you got me. Should we get going?"

* * *

The Eds arrived at Nazz's backyard, who was setting up party decorations. Nazz was, without a doubt, the most popular kid in the cul-de-sac. She was quite kind to all of her friends, and she rarely got angry at anyone. Her only drawback was that almost every boy in the cul-de-sac found her very attractive, which led to many grudges and fits of jealousy. Nazz saw the Eds and walked up to them, her long blonde hair moving back and forth with each step, she was wearing her usual outfit of a pure white long shirt, tight blue jeans, and dark high-tops. "Hey guys, did Kevin ask you to help out?"

Nazz's words were unheard from Edd and Eddy who were too busy starring into her beautiful baby blue eyes.

"Do we get to set up the pool?" Ed asked excitedly.

"If you can, I still got some stuff to set up inside. Thanks for helping out!" Nazz went inside he house, Edd and Eddy were still in their own little worlds.

"C'mon guys! We got stuff to do!" Ed clapped his hands, snapping Edd and Eddy out of their trances with the two starting to stammer a bit. Ed chuckled at the two's helplessness.

* * *

The Eds pulled themselves together and got the pool and sprinklers ready as the party guests showed up in their swimsuits, and Nazz came walking out of her house wearing a red and white swimsuit. The guests were really just the neighborhood kids such as Ed's kid sister Sarah and her friend Jimmy, Rolf the son of foreigners who had a hard time with the English language, and Jonny who was more or less a loner who always carried around a wooden 2x4 for companionship. The Eds changed into their own swimsuits and the party got started. Eddy started up some tunes on a boombox playing the song "Pool Party" by the Aquabats, Ed started horsing around in the pool with Jonny and Rolf, Edd was making small talk with Sarah and Jimmy.

Soon enough, Eddy managed to slip away with Nazz to the side of the house to talk alone.

"Enjoying yourself?" Nazz asked with a sincere smile.

"Yeah, it's a pretty cool party." Eddy told her, trying to be smooth.

"I'm glad you like it." Nazz smiled at him, checked again to make sure nobody was looking, and gave him a quick peck.

Eddy scratched the back of his head. "So...when do we tell everyone about me and you?"

Nazz gave him a sad look, "I told you Eddy, you and the Eds worked so hard to finally become recognized and accepted, I don't want something stupid as jealousy to destroy all that."

Eddy thought on that. In the aftermath of the events of that fateful summer, Nazz had realized how much of a jerk her childhood friend Kevin could be at times, growing to the point where she witnessed that he cared more about his bike than he did her. In the months that followed, Nazz instead became infatuated with Eddy, who was set on making up for all the stupid things he had done. Kevin meanwhile stayed the same, sure he didn't treat the Eds like common criminals but he still acted like the big shot he was, and at times a total jerk who kissed up to teachers to get special privileges and tried to run things his way.

"You know, Kevin's gonna find out sooner or later." Eddy told her.

"He might, and then he'll probably freak out on you, but you know it's not just Kevin now." Nazz reminded him.

"Oh yeah, we don't need Jonny running around as 'The Gourd' or whatever again."

"And what about Ed and Double-D?"

"Double-D would probably be alright with it, but he can't keep a secret that isn't his. As for Ed, well, you know he doesn't really like girls much..."

"I've been meaning to ask about that. Is Ed...well...you know?"

"I don't really know, that's none of my business. I think he's just afraid of girls or something like that."

"Hey, what are you guys talking about?"

Kevin showed up, after bringing the chips.

"We were talking about what movie we should watch when it gets dark." Nazz told him, looking at Eddy to back her up on it.

"Uh, yeah, Ed brought 'Headcheese 3: Even Cheesier' to watch." Eddy told him.

"But...that movie sucks. It's just a monster made out of cheese that stalks some girl who's lactose intolerant."

"Yeah, we're just going to make fun of it like those people on the internet." Nazz told him.

Kevin shrugged, "Okay, I guess that could be fun. Though I'd rather watch 'People from the Pods' if we're going to make fun of something."

* * *

After that exchange, the three headed back to the party and Eddy had Ed go get the movie from his house. After watching and making fun of said movie, everyone went to sleep in their sleeping bags.

Darkness.

Ed, Edd, and Eddy were floating in darkness again. In the darkness was what looked like a man in a long black cloak.

"_This world has been connected...tied to the darkness...soon to be completely eclipsed..."_

The man in the long black cloak pointed towards the Eds.

"_The door to your world has opened, but beware as you three cannot possibly comprehend what lies beyond it."_

**CRASH!**

"Ed boys! Wake up!"

The three Eds awoke, each having another strange dream, Rolf was above them.

Eddy groaned, "What is it stretch? It's like three in the morning..."

"Ed boys, on your feet! Rolf feels a great disaster that's about to happen!"

"What are you talking about?"

Edd looked out the window, the trees were shaking furiously and heavy rain fell to the ground, "There's a storm outside!" there were sounds of distant thunder outside.

Eddy looked out and shrugged, "Yeah, so? It's just a storm."

"Eddy, the wind pattern is too erratic to be just a storm, I believe it might be a hurricane!"

"Oh please, a hurricane? In our area?"

"I know it's unlikely to happen, but it's possible!"

"Hey, where's Kevin and Nazz?" Ed asked. In the living room, there were the Eds, Rolf, Sarah, Jimmy, and Jonny who all woke up from all the commotion. Nazz and Kevin were nowhere to be found.

"Did they get to the basement already?" Jonny asked.

"They wouldn't leave us up here, you idiot!" Sarah snapped.

"Look!" Jimmy pointed to the sliding door, "The door's unlocked! Maybe they went outside?"

"Oh no, they're going to be eaten by the storm!" Ed yelled.

"Why on Earth would they...Eddy, what are you doing?" Edd asked.

Eddy was putting on his shoes, "Going after them, what else?" Eddy told him.

"Are you crazy? You'll be caught in the storm!" Sarah yelled.

"So what, just stay here and let them be potentially killed?" Eddy had a serious look in his eyes.

"I'll go too!" Ed got on his shoes.

Edd sighed, "I just know this is a bad idea..." he put on his shoes too.

"Rolf will make sure everyone is safe in the cellar, be cautious!"

* * *

The Eds ran into the woods, the wind blowing incredibly strong, rain falling from the sky, and time and again they heard thunder in the distance. They all called for Kevin and Nazz, but they were nowhere to be seen. After a bit, Edd decided that enough was enough, "Eddy, this is suicide! How are we going to find them in this storm in the middle of the night?"

"WHAT?" Eddy couldn't hear him due to the sounds of the heavy wind and the lightning.

The shadows from the trees started to move, Ed noticed this, "Um guys?"

"Ed, not now. Eddy! We have to go back!"

"WHAT?" Eddy asked.

The shadows started to grow, and rise from the ground.

"Monsters! MONSTERS! GUYS, THE MONSTERS FROM THE DREAM!" Ed yelled.

Edd and Eddy saw as the shadow creatures from their dream materialized from the shadows. They had hostile movements.

"What in the world are these things?" Edd asked.

"How should I know? Weren't they in that dream?" Eddy evaded an attack that came from one of the shadow things.

"Yeah! And we fought them, with giant keys!" Ed told them.

"But Ed, we don't carry giant keys!" Edd hid himself behind Ed.

"Oh...then how do we fight them?" Ed tried to smack one, but the shadows bit at him, causing Ed to yell in pain.

"Forget it Ed! Let's make like crackers and cheese it!" Eddy yelled, the three Eds ran off into the woods some more, with the shadow monsters running after them.

* * *

It wasn't long until the three ran into a clearing, and in the middle of the clearing...

"Kevin!" the Eds ran up to him, almost out of breath.

Edd pointed at him, "What are you DOING out here? Have you gone insane?"

Kevin turned towards the Eds, he was angry, "You guys! You gotta help me find Nazz!"

"Nazz? Where is she?" Eddy was starting to get angry too.

"There was this guy in some cloak that grabbed her! I chased him into the woods!"

The shadows from before were getting closer.

"What about those monsters?" Ed asked.

"Monsters? What-"

The shadow monsters surrounded the four from all sides, the Eds and Kevin backed up together in a sort of box formation.

"We are doomed! So doomed!" Ed yelled.

"Isn't there a way out?" Edd asked.

"I don't see one!" Eddy told him.

"What are these things?" Kevin asked.

Suddenly, the shadow monsters started to sink into the ground and turn into pure darkness. The darkness started to surround the Eds and Kevin. Kevin started to sink.

"Huh? What? NO!" Kevin yelled as he was swallowed up by the darkness.

"KEVIN!" Eddy yelled, the three Eds started to sink.

"I CAN'T MOVE!" Edd yelled, the Eds were up to their shoulders.

"SOMEONE HELP US! PLEASE!" Ed yelled.

Darkness.

And then, light.

A bright light shined from seemingly nowhere, and the Eds found themselves back in the clearing, but this time holding the key-like weapons they had in their dreams.

"_Keyblade"_

"Did I say the magic word?" Ed asked, amazed.

"Where did these come from? It's like they materialized or something!" Edd was astonished.

"I still think 'Keyblade' is a stupid name...where did Kevin go?" Eddy looked around, Kevin had vanished. There were more shadow monsters that came after the Eds.

"Vengeance!" Ed yelled as he swung his keyblade at one, it struck and the shadow monster was destroyed. The other shadow monsters saw this, and saw the keyblade. They started running away.

"They're getting away! After them!" Ed ran after the shadow monsters.

"Wait for us, lumpy!" Eddy and Edd ran after Ed.

* * *

The three ended up back at the cul-de-sac but now the storm had gotten worse. In the sky was what looked like a huge dark ball that glowed a very unnatural purple and red color.

"What is that Double-D?" Ed asked.

"I have no idea..." Edd told him.

"Hey, look!" Eddy pointed at the center of the cul-de-sac. The shadow monsters were all joining together.

"What are they doing?" Edd got his answer as the shadows all joined together to form one giant shadow.

Incidentally, it was the same giant shadow from their dreams.

"Get out of our town!" Eddy yelled at the giant thing.

"Eddy! We have to destroy it!" Ed told him.

"How? We couldn't beat it in our dream!"

"We have to try! For Peach Creek!" Ed ran towards the giant shadow.

"Ed! Wait up!" Eddy ran after him.

"Courage Eddward, can't let them go alone!" Edd ran after them.

* * *

The giant shadow was much bigger than a house. As the Eds ran to the center of the cul-de-sac, the street started to rise above the ground and fly into the air. The humongous monstrosity of a shadow glared at the three Eds with eyes of unnatural gold. The Eds drew their keyblades and prepared for battle. The giant shadow struck the ground with its fist, and made a portal, the smaller shadow monsters came out from it.

"These ones don't matter! Let's cut through them and focus on the colossus!" Eddy ran up the arm of the giant shadow and started swinging his keyblade as its face. The monster pulled back, closing the portal, Eddy held onto it, struggling to stay on.

"Go help Eddy! I can handle these things!" Ed told Edd, he grabbed onto Edd.

"Ed?"

"Fly Double-D! FLY!" Ed threw him up to the giant shadow, Edd screamed as he flew up, he landed on the shoulder of the giant shadow. Eddy was still holding on the side, Edd helped him up.

"Thanks Double-D, I owe ya one." Eddy told him.

"Remind me to scold Ed when this is over." Edd remarked. The two started striking the colossal shadow's head.

Down below, Ed was dealing with the small group of creatures that came from the dark portal. He made quick work of them, feeling a bit of joy by destroying them. Ed noticed that strange, glowing heart-shaped things appeared after they vanish into shadow. After getting rid of the smaller enemies, Ed focused on the arms of the giant. With all three Eds attacking the humongous shadow monster, it started getting weaker and weaker until it finally stopped.

The giant shadow fell to its knees and Edd and Eddy quickly got off it as it started to vanish. The colossus made a sound that seemed to be in between a low grunt and a low roar. It sounded unnatural, unlike anything heard by human ears.

* * *

The monstrosity vanished, and the Eds fell down, exhausted.

"You guys alright?" Eddy asked.

"Yes, I am, thank you." Edd answered.

"We did it! We saved the cul-de-sac!" Ed cheered.

Ed didn't notice that they were getting closer and closer to the dark ball that was in the sky. The houses in the neighborhood started to rise into the air as well, and were absorbed by the dark ball. Upon seeing the buildings being absorbed, the Eds looked up and saw the dark ball engulfing the street they were on. It was getting closer, and closer...

"Um..guys? Do you get the feeling that something very bad is going to happen?" Ed asked.

The three Eds got together, they started to lift up off the ground.

"Its going to absorb us!" Edd screamed.

Eddy grabbed hold of Ed and Edd, "Hold on! Whatever happens, don't let go!"

The street the Eds were on flew up higher, and the Eds themselves were absorbed by the dark ball.

Darkness.


	3. Welcome to Cartoon Central

Resting on a wall was Edd. His eyes were closed as he slept. Edd groaned a bit as he shook himself awake, he saw that he was in a back alley of some kind. On the wall in front of him was some graffiti saying "_The End is Nigh"_ and also a couple of posters advertising stores and a diner that had the slogan _"Eat at Joe's."_

Edd got up and brushed his back, muttering that his shirt got filthy again, and then he remembered what happened in the previous chapter.

"Ed! Eddy! Where are you?" Edd called out. Nobody answered him. He was alone.

Edd decided that staying in the alley wouldn't help him much, so he walked out of it, what he saw were the streets of a city full of lights. It was night. Edd looked around, he saw stores, people walking around, anthropomorphic animals- "Wait, what?" Edd rubbed his eyes and looked again, yep, anthropomorphic animals were walking around. Some even without clothes on.

"This has to be a dream, yeah, that's it. I had a strange dream where there was a storm and now I'm here. A dream, just a dream..." Edd closed his eyes, "And if this is a dream, I can have it end or change things...now!" Edd opened his eyes. It was the same sight as before, nothing changed. Edd pinched himself. It hurt.

"Okay, so this isn't a dream...where am I?"

Edd thought about asking one of the people in the street, since the anthros were creeping him out, he walked up to someone wearing tan hunting clothes and a large tan hat.

"Excuse me sir, but can you tell me where I'm at?" Edd asked.

"Where you at? This is Cawtoon Centwal." the man in tan told him.

"Caw-tune Cent-wall?" Edd asked, trying to pronounce the name.

"No, no! Cawtoon Centwall!"

"Cah-too-sent-well?"

"NO! CAW-TOON CENT-WALL!" the man yelled.

"I think I can help ya, doc."

Edd turned around and almost jumped at the sight of what looked like a rabbit that stood on it's hind legs at around five feet tall eating a carrot.

"AH! GIANT RABBIT! AND IT TALKS!" Edd screamed.

The rabbit looked aside, "Tourists..."

"This is impossible! How can a rabbit be so tall? And how are you talking?"

"I just am, and I just can. Is that so hard to believe? Name's Bugs by the way."

"Oh thanks, now it all makes sense! I must be going insane..."

"Let me guess, you is one of them egghead types, right?"

"You must be my own self-loathing, somehow I knew I'd finally snap!" Edd had his arms over his head in anguish, Bugs put an arm around him.

"Hey kid, sorry about that. Look, why don't we get some grub? Slow down, cool it for a bit? What do you say, doc?"

"I dunno, I don't care...food sounds good, yes, must be a lack of nutrients..."

* * *

Bugs led Edd along to a diner that had a neon sign above it saying _"Eat at Joe's"_, inside were a couple of people and anthros, the two went in and took a seat on some empty bar stools.

"Hey doc! Get me some carrot juice and this kid some water!" Bugs yelled at whoever was tending the bar.

Edd looked around, various people stood out in the crowd. There was a huge blonde guy with muscles trying to hit on a red-headed young woman who sat with a group of friends and a dog that actually looked like a real dog. There was also what looked like some kind of robot with a huge light bulb on it's head sitting in a booth with a sheep who also stood up on its hind legs and had a blank expression on his face. Then there was two Japanese-looking girls who were playing guitars on the other side of the diner on a stage. Edd looked back at the bar.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Welcome to Cartoon Central." Bugs told him with a smug grin.

"So that's what this place is called?"

"Yeah, it's at least what most of us call it."

"Okay then..." Edd looked at his water that came by when he wasn't looking, he took a drink.

"So, what exactly is this place? How did I get here?" Edd asked.

"This is pretty much what's left of all the worlds that were destroyed. My guess is that you got here after your world was destroyed, doc."

"...huh?"

"Oh, you didn't know? Most of us here just kinda showed up after our worlds were destroyed."

"...destroyed?"

"Yeah, this may take a while to sink in...hey bartender, get this kid some milk or something, will ya?"

The bartender came over and put down a glass of milk, Edd looked up to see Ed's smiling face.

"ED?"

"Oh hiya Double-D! Where did you come from?"

Edd grabbed onto Ed's face and pushed and pulled a bit.

"Kid, what are you doing? Do you know this guy?" Bugs asked.

"Ed! You're okay! What happened? What are you doing here?"Edd asked.

"Aww, I missed you too Double-D!" Ed hugged Edd.

"Hey kids, you two kinda making a scene..."

* * *

After calming down, Ed explained that when he woke up, he found himself in the kitchen where hunger took over and he ended up owing money to the diner.

"So, they're having me work it off. How cool is that?" Ed was cleaning out a glass.

"How can they put you in charge of a bar? You're not of age." Edd pointed out.

"They only serve non-alcoholic drinks, didn't you notice?" Bugs told him.

"So where's Eddy?" Ed asked.

"Eddy? I thought he was with you."

"No, I've only been in here."

"Another one of your pals?" Bugs asked.

"You can say that, he's a bit taller than me, kinda chubby, short temper..." Edd described.

"You'll have to be more specific, doc."

Edd sighed and put his head down on the bar, "This is the end, I'm done, game over. There is no hope for me now."

"Hey, it's not that bad. Get a hold of yourself, doc."

"I think I need to lay down, even though I think I've been unconscious enough today."

"Alright, how about I get you a place to sleep? There's a room at my flat."

Edd thought this over, one of the things he knew he shouldn't do is follow a strange person to anywhere, especially somewhere to sleep. But given the fact that his world was probably destroyed, Edd didn't care. Bugs gave Ed the address to where they were going, and Edd followed him out of the diner and they headed for the flat.

* * *

The two walked into a different section of Cartoon Central, here the streets were empty and all the doors were closed. Shops seemed boarded up too.

"Now be careful here, doc. Dangerous neighborhood." Bugs told Edd.

"Wait, don't you live around here?" Edd asked.

"It's more of a temporary thing, plus there's very low rent."

Edd looked around, aside from the boarded up windows and doors, it didn't seem too dangerous.

"So what's wrong with this place?"

Suddenly, shadows from the darkness grew and rose into the same creatures from the Eds' dream and the woods from the cul-de-sac.

"Oh geez, run!" Bugs bolted for a door, "Come on egghead! Don't let those things get to you!"

Edd recognized the creatures, and knew how to deal with them. But Edd didn't know where his giant key went.

"If only I had that keyblade now, I could-" then Edd's keyblade appeared in his right hand in a ray of light.

"Oh, that's convenient!" Edd didn't dare question where the keyblade came from, he instead put it to good use by getting rid of the feral creatures that were in front of him. It took a bit of work alone, but Edd managed to drive them off.

"Whew, that certainly woke me up." Edd turned towards Bugs who's mouth was agape.

"Uh...do you need medical attention?" Edd asked.

Bugs pointed at Edd's keyblade, "Doc, where did you get that?"

Edd looked at his keyblade, "It's kinda a long story..."

* * *

Edd told Bugs about all that has happened with him and the others as they made it to Bugs' flat. The two were at the door.

"I gotta say doc, that's some crazy story. So you, that big guy with the one eyebrow, and this Eddy kid can use that there keyblade?"

"In a nutshell, yes, but how do you know about it?"

Bugs opened the door, "Well, maybe that can wait until your friend comes by."

_"And I was all like, 'Hey, I don't even LIKE cabbage!"_

Two kinds of laughter were heard in Bugs' flat. Edd recognized one of them.

"Daffy? Who do you got in here?" Bugs asked, he and Edd walked into the flat and saw an anthropomorphic duck and Eddy sitting on a couch.

Eddy waved, "Hey! Double-D! You made it!"

"Eddy!" Edd ran over and grab hold of him, "You're real! You're not fake!" Eddy lightly shoved Edd off.

"Whoa Double-D, you know I ain't that kind of guy!" Eddy joked.

"This is Eddy? Did you just let him in Daff?" Bugs was referring to the duck.

"Hey Bugsy, get a load of this, this kid can use the keyblade!" Daffy was pointing his thumb at Eddy, who had a smug look on his face.

"Yeah, and so can this skinny kid and some huge guy working at the usual place." Bugs told him.

"Hey that reminds me, I ordered pizza, think you can spot me some cash? I'm good for it."

"That's a lie and you know it."

There was a knock at the door.

"And there's the food!" Daffy walked over to the door, opened it.

"Cool a duck!" yelled the voice of Ed.

"Yeah, I'm a duck, got a problem with that?"

"No way! Ducks are awesome! You order a pizza?"

* * *

Ed managed to slip in, saying that delivering the pizza was the last thing he needed to do to pay off his debt, which was surprisingly convenient. Bugs and Edd took a seat on some chairs while Eddy and Daffy stayed on the couch. Ed returned after getting the money back to the diner, and took a seat on the floor.

"So Bugs, are you going to tell us about how you know about the keyblade?" Edd asked.

"Yeah, Daffy was telling me a bit about that, it's part of some kind of order, right?" said Eddy.

"That's only part of it." Bugs told him, "See, a long while ago there used to be this vast order of folks who could use the keyblade. They used it to keep the many separate worlds at peace and safe from, well, pretty much anything evil really."

"Ooh! Like the Jedi?" asked Ed.

"Uh...no, not really. Okay, so one day some members of the order decided to use their powers to take over worlds instead of protecting them-"

"Like the Sith?" asked Ed, again.

"No."

"Ed, please let him finish the story before making connections to Star Wars." Edd asked.

"Sorry, it's just that they seem similar." Ed told him.

"Alright, alright, so anyway, there were those who kept the order and those who wanted to take over the worlds-"

"Of course," commented Eddy.

"In the end, it escalated into a war that pretty much destroyed both sides, and the worlds were left nearly defenseless. In the aftermath, there were only a few Keyblade Masters left."

"Keyblade Masters? What, are there ranks now?" Eddy asked.

"Yeah, three. Keyblade Wielders, Keyblade Apprentices, and Keyblade Masters." Daffy told him.

Ed kept his mouth shut about the Star Wars connection.

"You three are Keyblade Wielders, those who have the potential of using the keyblade and the lowest ranked."

The Eds all glanced at each other, confused.

"So, what's so special about the keyblade? And why does it have such a stupid name?" Eddy asked.

"You know those things you three fought?" Daffy asked.

"You mean the shadow monsters?" Ed asked.

"Well, the correct term is the Heartless. They come from the darkness in people's hearts." Bugs told him, "Ya see, the Heartless ain't too fond of those keyblades of yours, they're both afraid of it and are attracted to it. The keyblades are really the only thing that can get rid of them. Any other weapon, like a gun, or sword, or even explosives would just drive them away, but they'll always come back. The original goal of the Keyblade Masters was to keep the worlds safe from Heartless."

"As for the stupid name, well, it looks like a key. Nobody really knows why though." Daffy told Eddy.

Edd let this all sink in, "Okay then, I suppose that makes sense...so how do you know about all this?"

"Well, in our world there was a Keyblade Master named Senoj. He pretty much told anyone who'd listen to him." Daffy told him.

"Senn-udge?" Ed tried pronouncing the name.

"He was studying the Heartless, trying to find out why the keyblade had such an effect on them, and trying to find out how to get rid of the Heartless without them coming back for good." Bugs explained.

"But then one day, the whole world was invaded by Heartless!" Daffy shouted with exaggerated hand gestures.

"They were everywhere! We just barely got out of dodge on our gummi ships!"

"Your what?" Edd asked.

"Gummi ship, it's sort of like a space ship, but easier to build and pilot. Senoj told us about them, and gave people stuff to make them with." Daffy explained.

"Then we ended up here, where we've been for years." Bugs finished.

"Wow!" Ed was amazed.

"What an incredible story..." Edd thought out loud.

"So...what happened to our world?" Eddy asked.

Bugs rested his chin on a balled up fist and closed his eyes, "I really hate to be the bearer of bad news here...but it's probably gone, as I told egghead here before."

"Everyone I talked to said they came from worlds that were eaten away by the Heartless..." Ed said, he then realized something, "Wait! Does that mean everyone else is gone?"

"Huh?" everyone except for Ed didn't know what he was talking about.

"Everyone! Sarah! Jimmy!"

Edd then caught on, "He's right! What happened to everyone else? Our friends? Our family?"

"Nazz and Kevin...wait KEVIN!" Eddy stood up, "Kevin was swallowed by that dark portal thing! Kinda the same as us! He could've showed up here too!" Eddy walked to the door.

"Guys, come on. We're going to look around this world and see if we can find shovel-chin anywhere."

Ed got up off the floor, "Oh boy! We're going on an adventure!"

"I suppose we should keep together, safety in numbers and all." Edd got off his seat and headed for the door with the other Eds.

"Be careful out there kids, those Heartless may not seem so strong but they can get real nasty." Bugs warned them.

"We'll be fine! We got these!" Ed, Edd, and Eddy summoned the keyblade into their hands, posing with them like an elite group of fighters. Ed held his keyblade with two hands over his head, Eddy held his keyblade with one hand behind his back, and Edd held his keyblade with one hand across his chest. The three ran outside and went down the street.

Daffy looked over at Bugs, "You think we should've told them about the giant Heartless that terrorizes the whole town?"

Bugs shook his head, "Nah, they'll find out soon enough and come running back."

* * *

The Eds ran through the deserted streets, it getting darker and darker the further they went. They came across some of the smaller Heartless which at this point will be referred to as Shadow Heartless, as well as a new type of Heartless that looked kinda like a soldier with a metal helmet and blue uniform that will aptly be named Soldier Heartless. One striking difference was that the Soldier Heartless had a sort of emblem on its chest, and didn't seem to be made out of pure darkness like the Shadows.

"Why do I get the feeling that we'll eventually fight a giant version of these?" Edd asked after Ed smashed another Soldier to nothingness.

"You mean like that giant shadow monster thing we fought in the cul-de-sac?" Eddy asked him, Ed ran off to fight more Soldiers as the two talked.

"Something like that, it's just a feeling I have that we'll fight gigantic Heartless once in a while, do you think we can handle that?"

There was a group of five Soldiers in front of the Eds, until Ed did a sort of tornado attack where he spun in a circle with his keyblade held out, destroying them all in one go. Edd and Eddy looked over at him, and then back at each other.

"As long as Monobrow the Barbarian over there doesn't run out of energy, I think we'll be okay. Ed! Save your energy for the heavy hitters!"

"Okie-dokie-smokie!" Ed yelled back.

* * *

The Eds took off again, battling any Shadow or Soldier they came across as they looked for hints that any of their friends from the cul-de-sac were in this world. They found nothing so far, but they did get good practice in with fighting the Heartless. Soon enough, they came to a dead end.

"A dead end?" Edd asked out loud, stating what I just pointed out.

Eddy nodded, "Looks like it, and nobody else in sight...we should turn back."

Suddenly there was a loud noise behind them, the Eds turned around and saw large pillars rise out of the ground, blocking the way back. On top of the pillars were Soldier Heartless, they jumped down at the Eds.

"Here they come!" Ed yelled as the Heartless attacked. Ed and Eddy both jumped into the fray, but Edd stayed behind. Something in Edd's head started to buzz, and he swore he could feel his keyblade vibrate. A single word popped into Edd's head.

"_Fire"_

"Fire?" Edd asked in confusion, his keyblade suddenly started to move on its own and pointed towards a Soldier that was coming at Eddy. A ball of fire shot out of Edd's keyblade, and hit the Soldier, engulfing it in a small flame that burnt it out of existence.

"WOAH! You can make fire? Since when?" Eddy asked Edd as he fended off another Soldier.

"I don't know! It just sort of happened!" Edd told him.

"Cool! Think I can do that?" Ed asked, he pointed his keyblade at a Soldier that was further away, "FIRE!"

Nothing happened.

"FIRE!"

Still nothing happened, Ed just shrugged and went back to smashing with just his keyblade.

"Here Ed, let a pro show you how it's done..." Eddy closed his eyes and tried to focus.

"FIRE!" Eddy yelled with passion, his keyblade pointed toward a Soldier, and a fire ball shot out of his keyblade. It struck the Soldier and it burnt just like the one Edd shot with fire. All Eds were surprised that it happened. All the Soldier Heartless were now gone but the pillars were still up.

"How did you do that Eddy?" asked Ed who was still bummed that he couldn't shoot fireballs.

Eddy shrugged, "I dunno, I just focused on the idea of setting something on fire and then BANG, fireball!"

Ed thought about this, he closed his eyes and tried to focus.

"FIRE!" Ed yelled with passion, nothing happened.

"Huh...did you focus hard enough?" Edd asked him.

"Um...what does 'focus' mean again?" Ed asked. Edd and Eddy both placed a hand flat across their faces.

"You just worry about smashing things Ed...does anyone else feel that?" Eddy was referring to the ground shaking.

"Earthquake?" Edd asked.

Ed looked up, and quickly tackled Edd and Eddy before large parts of armor fell on them. The three looked at the armor, it was purple with separate helmet, torso, gauntlets, and boots. The six parts then started to hover and join together in what looked like a giant, much more powerful version of the Soldier. The Heartless emblem was on the torso part.

"Don't you ever hate it when you're right?" Eddy asked Edd.

"Sometimes." Edd sighed.

The Eds prepared for another battle.

The floating armor slowly made its way towards the Eds.

"FIRE!" Edd yelled, causing another fireball to shoot out at the torso armor. It struck it, but it didn't really do much damage.

"FIRE!" Eddy yelled, nothing happened.

"What?" Eddy looked at his keyblade.

"LOOK OUT!" Ed jumped in the way and blocked the gauntlet that headed for Eddy.

"Why didn't it work now?" Eddy yelled.

"You probably didn't focus enough! FIRE!" Another fireball shot out of Edd's keyblade, striking the torso again.

"Forget it, come on Ed!" Eddy started striking the gauntlet Ed was trying to smash. With the two hitting the same target, it soon enough broke apart. This gave Eddy an idea, "Hey Eds! Try to aim for the same target! We'll take this rust bucket apart piece by piece!"

Ed and Eddy started hitting the same part of the armor while Edd stayed comfortable with shooting fireballs from a distance. It got to the point where only the torso and helmet were left.

"We're winning! We're winning!" cheered Ed.

The torso and helmet started to shake like it was angry. Wait, can Heartless get angry? Well, it at least shook itself like it was angry. It started to spin fast like a cyclone, and rammed itself into Ed and Eddy who were in close range of it. Ed and Eddy flew back, hitting the wall of the dead end.

Edd ran over to them, fearing for their safety, "Are you two alright?"

"Bro I told you, I didn't touch your smokes..." Eddy said with stars around his head.

"Mommy please don't hit me, I'll be good, I promise..." Ed said weakly.

"Oh no, what should I-ah!"

The buzzing came back into Edd's head, his keyblade began to vibrate.

"_Cure"_

Edd viewed this the same way he learned how to use Fire, but this one wasn't an attack.

"CURE!"

Edd's keyblade pointed upwards, a calm green light emitted from it and surrounded itself around Ed and Eddy. The two got up off the ground, and hit the torso before it got to close to them. The torso flew back.

"Thanks Double-D!" Ed said as he ran to the torso like nothing happened.

"Yeah, I feel like I was given a million bucks! Gotta remember that one." Eddy tried to focus on healing himself.

"CURE!" Eddy's keyblade shot up, and did the same thing Edd's did. The green light rejuvenated Eddy some more, but not as enough as Edd's healing did.

The two ran back to help Ed with the torso armor. It suddenly just stopped moving and floated higher up, away from reach.

"HEY! Get back down here!" Eddy yelled.

The torso armor stayed up in the air, it easily missed Ed and Eddy's attempts to hit it.

"It looks like it won't come back down, but at least it can't hurt us from up there." Edd pointed out.

Suddenly, the torso aimed its underside at the Eds, and a ball of dark blue light shot out of it. The Eds all jumped out of the way as it struck the ground.

"Aw, come on! That's just cheating!" Ed yelled, the armor charged up another ball and shot at him. Ed dodged this with a roll, a dodge roll if you will.

"Looks like we have to burn it. Double-D, get ready! Ed, distract it!" Eddy commanded.

"Distract it how? I don't have my cane and top hat!" Ed yelled as he dodged another ball of dark blue energy.

"Ya don't need them! Just keep doing what you're doing!" with Ed distracting the now canon armor thing, Edd and Eddy got into position.

"I'm ready." Edd told him, Eddy nodded, and began to focus.

"FIRE!" the two shouted together, both of their keyblades pointed at the armor and fired at once.

Somehow, the two fireballs joined together into a bigger one and it collided with the armored Heartless. The explosion from the combined fireballs was what finally felled the frantic suit of armor, and the Eds watched as the torso shook, stopped, and split apart into light.

The Eds saw as what looked like a heart appearing from the remains of the armor, and then vanish into the air. Then there was another bright light, this time from behind them on the wall where the dead end was. The bright light came from what looked like a keyhole. The Eds walked up to it.

"Was this here before?" Edd asked.

"No, we would've noticed it." Eddy told him.

"Oooh, do you think that armored Heartless was guarding it?" Ed speculated.

Edd and Eddy shrugged. Each of the Eds felt their keyblades vibrate.

"Huh? What's-" Eddy was cut off by each of their keyblades pointing to the keyhole at once, a bright light shot out of the keyblades and into the keyhole. Then there was a sound of a lock, the light vanished, taking the keyhole with it.

After that, the pillars blocking the way out came down, and lights suddenly appeared to brighten up the streets that were once completely dark.

"...well this has certainly been a very strange and tiring day..." Edd groaned.

* * *

As the Eds walked back to the flat of Bugs and Daffy, they saw others coming out of buildings and walking into the streets. When they saw the Eds, they began to clap and cheer, making the Eds wondering just what they did to get this response.

A crowd formed and lifted the Eds up on their shoulders.

"Um, not that I don't like this or anything, but what did we do?" Eddy asked.

"Are you kidding? You saved the city!" shouted someone from the crowd.

"Those Heartless had all but taken over Cartoon Central! Most of us have given up on hope!" shouted someone else in the crowd.

"Does this mean, we're HEROES? AWESOME!" Ed was happy once more.

Edd decided to just let it happen and not question anything, he had far enough for one day.

* * *

The Eds were carried to the first district of the city, where Bugs and Daffy were waiting for them. The crowd of cartoon characters dropped the Eds off in front of them.

"Hoo-hoo! You guys showed them Heartless who's boss!" Daffy told them.

"Gotta hand it to ya, you kids are all right." Bugs complimented while eating a carrot.

"Thanks, I guess." Eddy told him, scratching the back of his head.

"Oh no, thank _you_!" the Eds turned around and saw what looked like a short dark-skinned man with a spartan helmet in a tutu with sneakers.

"Cool! A martian!" Ed exclaimed.

"Yes, I am Marvin, and as a representative of this fine city, I would like to offer you all a gift."

Marvin the martian pulled out what looked like a remote control.

"Where did that come from? You don't have pockets!" Eddy questioned.

"I think it's best we don't know." Edd told him.

Ed gladly took the remote, "A REMOTE! I always wanted one of these!"

Edd and Eddy again placed a flat hand across their faces.

"It's not just _any _remote. This remote controls a gummi ship! Go ahead, the green button calls it." Marvin pointed at the shiny green button near the top of the remote, Ed pushed it and soon enough a sort of block-shaped spacecraft hovered slowly down from the sky, it stayed up about ten feet above ground.

"You can press the green button again to send it back into orbit, that's where they stay while not planetside."

"How do we get in?" Edd asked.

"The blue button." Marvin pointed at the blue button, Ed pushed it and some kind of beam appeared above him, he got beamed into the ship.

"Push it again to get out!" Marvin yelled up, Ed was beamed back down.

Eddy grabbed the remote from Ed, "This is great! With this, we can travel to other worlds and look for Nazz, Kevin, and the others!"

"Traveling to other worlds...sounds like something from a video game. What do you think Ed?" Edd asked Ed who was looking kinda down.

"What's up doc? You seemed happy like five seconds ago." said Bugs.

Ed shrugged, "I'm the only one who couldn't use fire-" Eds keyblade shot up, and a giant fireball shot out of it. Everyone in the crowd screamed and ducked, the fireball flew past them all and struck the large neon _"Eat at Joe's"_ sign that was just above the diner, the sign burst into flames. Everyone looked over at Ed who had a large grin on his face.

"Did I do that?" he asked excitedly. Ed suddenly owed more work to the diner.

* * *

Much later, Eddy was in the diner at the bar drinking some milk-plus of the non-Korova variety. The door opened, and Edd walked in carrying a bag full of items for their trip.

"I made sure to use the funds given to us by the citizens here wisely, though I wonder how they manufactured so many of these potions and ethers..."

"Who knows, and why did you waste the money on that? We already got some of them from the Heartless we fought." Eddy pointed out.

"I didn't waste it all on them, I also had to buy parts for the gummi ship, you won't believe how expensive they are!"

Eddy shrugged, "It makes sense, given that these people only have so few of those parts. Think of a name for the ship yet?"

"A name?"

"Yeah Double-D, a ship has to have a name. For good luck and all."

Edd thought for a moment, "Hmm...how about the Heart of Gold?"

"Nah that's stupid, how about the Astro Megaship?"

"If I may intervene-" Bugs took a long drag on eating a carrot, "Shouldn't yer new ship sound a bit more...personal?"

Edd and Eddy thought on this, and they both knew that there was only one such name for that.

"The Ed-Wing!" they both said.

Bugs looked aside, "Wow, in perfect sync too."

On the other side of the diner, Daffy had a microphone on the stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, please give a round of applause for the song and dance styles of the one, the only, ED!"

The curtain went up, Ed stood on stage wearing a top hat and holding a cane, ragtime music started playing and Ed began to dance and sing.

_"Hello, ma baby! Hello, ma honey! Hello ma ragtime gal!"_

The crowd of people cheered and some threw change at Ed.

"That a boy Ed!" cheered Eddy, there was a sound of grumbling that came next to Bugs.

"Showoff." muttered a non-anthro frog that sat on the bar.

* * *

Meanwhile in a dark room, in a dark castle, far off in another world, five shadowed beings watched the Eds using some kind of crystal ball.

"Those three brats managed to take down that Heartless? You gotta be kidding me!" shouted the shadow who had a smoking pipe.

"Do not be stupid! Their strength comes from that which is called the keyblade, not of their own accord!" said the short, hairy shadow with a cone-like thing on its head.

"Keyblade or not, they will be no match for my machines! A-ha-ha! A-ha-ha-ha-ha!" laughed the shadow who was in a floating chair.

"Overconfidence will mark the end of you, what we need is a plan." said the shadow who wore a mask.

"I have an idea!" shouted the shadow that looked like he wore a crown.

"We cannot just freeze them! If it would be that simple, the Heartless would get rid of them on their own!" snapped the hairy shadow.

"Then I'm out of ideas."

"Here's the plan." the five shadows turned to a being in a long black cloak.

"The plan is that you five stick to your orders, and carry along as we have already discussed. Is that clear?"

The five shadows looked at one another, they all muttered and grumbled in agreement.

The one with the mask spoke up, "What about the keyhole? Surely you realize that those three sealing one is just the beginning..."

"Don't worry about that, finding those keyholes will just keep them busy while we carry out our plans."

"Another thing, why do you not tell US about these plans that you are having? You are leaving us in the dark on why these 'Pure of Heart' are so important!" yelled the hairy shadow.

"All in due time, just remember that once we are finished, we will have absolute control. Now, are there any other questions?"

"Yeah, can we turn on some lights? I can't see a darn thing!" said the shadow with the crown.

The others just glared at him.

"Okay, fine, yeah, mood and all..."

The six in the room gathered around to watch the Eds.

Nearby in another room was Nazz who was in what looked like a huge glass tube. She didn't move, her eyes were closed, and she floated as if in suspended animation. The room she was in was filled with six other glass tubes.

Outside the castle, a shadowed figure with a backwards red baseball cap jumped over the wall to the courtyard. It had taken him hours to get there.


	4. The Coliseum

After a dark portal swallowed him up, Kevin found himself in darkness. He had no idea where he was or how he got there, but he didn't care. The last thing he remembered was that Nazz was taken away by some guy in a cloak, and that the only thing he wanted was to chase after him.

Through the darkness Kevin found a way to a dark world, and before him was a long and twisted stairway to a castle that had a strange emblem on one of its towers that looked like a heart with an X across it. Kevin had a feeling in his gut that the guy in the cloak brought Nazz here, so he climbed the long, twisted stairway.

When he reached the top, he stood at the castle gates that were locked with some kind of huge and complex lock and surrounded by impossibly high walls. That didn't stop him though, he decided to climb the wall, even if it killed him. He got over it due to his athletic body and through a mix of sheer willpower and rage.

It had taken him hours to get to the courtyard, he headed for the castle doors.

* * *

Inside the castle, the six shadowy figures heard a loud noise.

"Did anyone else hear that noise that was loud?" asked the hairy shadow.

The shadow with the cloak waved a hand over the crystal ball. The view changed from the Eds to Kevin who was outside the castle doors, banging on them.

"Oh look, ANOTHER brat! I'll go and fry him." said the shadow who had a smoking pipe, he turned for the door.

"Don't waste your energy, let the Heartless take care of him. He's completely unarmed." calmly said the shadow with the mask.

"No, wait, I have a better idea." said the shadow in the cloak.

"Right, we freeze him!" cheered the shadow with the crown.

"No you idiot! We let him in."

There were sounds of confusion.

* * *

The doors to the castle opened up, Kevin let himself in. He found himself inside an empty and dark foyer, suddenly the doors slammed shut behind him.

"Strange, what is a child doing here?"

Kevin turned towards a dark figure in a black cloak who he didn't see before, "I'm not a child!" Kevin yelled, he looked over the guy in the cloak, "Hold up, you're that guy in the cloak! You abducted Nazz!" Kevin charged right for the cloaked man who merely held up a hand. Kevin instantly stopped, and was thrown backwards, he landed on the floor hard. Kevin's sunglasses fell off and broke.

"What did you plan to do? Attack me? You should learn to calm yourself, child."

"Don't call me a child!" Kevin got back up.

"You react like one, you look like one. As far as I can tell, you are a child."

"Shut up! Give me back my girlfriend!"

"Girlfriend? Aren't you a bit young for that?"

"I'll kill you!" Kevin ran towards the cloaked man again, and met the same result.

"You know, child, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the prime example of insanity."

Kevin got back up, "Cut that crap with me being a child!" he again ran towards the cloaked man, who held up a hand and Kevin stopped. But this time, he kept Kevin in mid-air.

"You don't listen well, do you?"

"Why should I listen to you? You're obviously evil! You 're wearing a black cloak for crying out loud!"

"I only wear this so the darkness doesn't consume me, this cloak repels the darkness, plus it looks really cool."

Kevin thought about this for a moment, "Oh...didn't think of that."

"Of course not, and you probably didn't think about why I rescued your friend."

"Rescued?"

The cloaked man grew a secret smile, he had planted the seeds of corruption.

* * *

The Ed-wing was safely in orbit around Cartoon Central, amazingly not hitting any other gummi ship in the area, though there weren't that many to begin with. As for what the Ed-wing looked like, the Eds redesigned it to resemble the purple retro van with flame decals they once found in the junkyard near the cul-de-sac, except now with weapons like lasers and cannons and engines on the back. It was also much bigger.

Edd and Eddy were in the cockpit of the Ed-wing, the cockpit had two large and comfy seats with computers in the front for the pilot (where Eddy sat) and co-pilot (where Edd sat) and two large and comfy seats in the back for passengers. Also in the back was a door to the living area, kitchen, and cabins. On the side wall of the cockpit was a sign that read: _"Inappropriate jokes about the word 'cockpit' will result in immediate ejection." _On the other side was a computer screen displaying the status of the ship. In front of the seats was a window for viewing the outside.

"Engines?" Eddy asked.

"Primed" Edd told him.

"Weapons?"

"Ready to fire."

"Shields?"

"Charged."

"Ed?"

"I gave him a GamePocket Color, and had him stay in the living area FAR AWAY from the controls so no accidents will happen."

From the living area, they could hear Ed having fun with his video game.

"Good, how's the navigation?"

"Our course is set for the nearest world, auto-pilot should get us there smoothly, though we should be careful in the case of Heartless ships attacking."

"That's still kinda confusing. I mean, there are Heartless who can pilot ships?"

"Actually, I think they're just giant ship-shaped Heartless flying in space or something like that."

"Wait, how can the ship's weapons fight the Heartless? I thought the keyblade was the only thing that could get rid of them."

"Our ship's weapons will be able to drive them away and, but not permanently destroy Heartless."

"But then won't they just head for a world, land there, and then create chaos?"

Edd took a deep breath, and let it out "Maybe they just stay in space? I don't have the answers to everything!"

"Okay, okay, sorry. One last thing: Music."

Edd looked over at Eddy, "Music?"

Eddy held a CD, "Music!" Eddy put the CD into the computer at his seat, and music starting playing.

"_Josie's on vacation far away, come around and talk it over!"_

"Eddy, please take your mix CD out of the ship's computer."

"What, are ya kidding? This was my jam for the summer of 1986!"

"Eddy, you were born in 1999."

"Yeah, what's your point?"

"My point is that I don't want your CD to mess with the ship's computer! It could cause internal damage, and then we could be without navigation, weapons, and everything we need to stay ALIVE while we're in the midst of SPACE!" Edd yelled.

"Okay! Okay! I'm taking it out!" Eddy took out his mix CD, and put it back in its jewel case.

"Do you carry that everywhere you go?"

"Of course! I can't live without my tunes."

Edd groaned, "Well, at least we're ready for takeoff."

The Ed-wing's engines started to light up, and the Ed-wing took off in the direction of another world. After about five minutes in flight, Ed walked into the cockpit, "Hey, are we there yet?" he asked.

"No Ed, please go back to the living area and occupy yourself or go to your cabin and sleep." Edd told him, trying to stay calm.

"But I'm bored and- WOW! Look at the size of those Heartless!"

Before them were many ships with the Heartless emblem, some off to the side and others that were right in their path.

"They're headed right for us! Shoot them down!" Eddy commanded.

"I'm on it, captain." Edd grabbed hold of what looked like a computer joystick with a trigger and a button on the side, he twisted the joystick to move crosshairs on the computer screen connected to his chair, aiming them at the Heartless ships and pulling the trigger. The weapons on the Ed-wing shot towards the Heartless ships, but they maneuvered out of the way.

"Huh?"

"Come on Double-D! Shoot them before-"

The Heartless ships shot at them, it struck the Ed-wing. The three Eds screamed as the Ed-wing shook. Edd and Eddy fell out of their chairs, Eddy pulled himself up, "Damage report, Mr. Double-D?"

Edd looked at a computer screen on the side of the wall, and sighed with relief, "Our shields are still up Eddy, the ship didn't take any damage."

"Great, but there's still the ships attack- ED. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

Ed was at Edd's seat, playing with the joystick.

"Wait Eddy, look!" Edd pointed outside, the Heartless ships were being shot down with great precision, soon enough, they were all gone.

Edd stood up, "Ed! You saved us! How did you do that?"

Ed shrugged, "It was just like one of the games from Monkey Cheese Arcade, wasn't that hard to control."

Eddy put an arm around Ed, "Ed, once again you have amazed me on how stupidly brilliant you can be at times "

Ed smiled, "Is that a compliment?"

"Call it what you like."

"Gentlemen, we have a world in sight!" Edd pointed out the window, they saw a strange looking world with what looked like a futuristic city surrounded by deserts, forests, and oceans.

* * *

Back in the dark castle, Kevin and the cloaked man were looking at Nazz who still rested in a tube, in suspended stasis.

Kevin started to speak, "So let me get this straight. There are many worlds aside from mine and this one, but most of them were destroyed."

"Yes."

"In order to get them back, including my home, you need these seven 'pure of heart' or whatever."

"That is correct."

"Nazz incidentally turns out to be one of them, and when you found out, you came to my world and saved her from the Heartless."

"The untamed ones, yes. You learn well."

"So...why aren't you getting the other ones and bringing them here?"

"It's not that simple. I have only recently found the locations of those who are pure of heart, and even then, it would be hard to explain that I come from another world and that I need their help. Plus, they are constantly in danger of the untamed Heartless that plan to harm their worlds."

"I should've asked this before, but why is she in this tube?"

"It's to keep her safe. The untamed Heartless will no doubt try to cause harm to her. This is the only way to be sure her heart will stay with her. After I told her of the situation, she gladly volunteered."

Kevin looked over Nazz again, he rubbed the glass of the tube she was in, it felt sturdy enough.

"So, when you get those other six, she won't have to be here anymore?"

"Precisely."

"Okay, what can I do to help?"

"Pardon?"

"You say you need those seven 'pure of heart', after they get here, you won't need them, so if I go out to get them here-"

"No."

"What?"

"You can't go, you wouldn't be able to handle the dangers in getting them here."

"Says you! I can handle anything!"

"Can you brave the darkness? Only by traveling through it can you get to the other worlds."

"Of course I can! I'm not scared of the darkness!"

That's just what the cloaked man wanted to hear, "Then I suppose you can help me. But first, you need to be trained in the ways of darkness. Only then can you hope to stand a chance against the untamed Heartless..."

* * *

Ed, Edd, n Eddy walked around the futuristic-looking city, seeing no person or Heartless in sight. All there was were screens and posters advertising a tournament.

"_Attention all warriors! _

_Fight a horde of monsters in the attempt to obtain the grand prize of any ONE WISH from our absolute ruler, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL AKU!_

_Today ONLY at the coliseum!"_

Eddy pointed at the advertisement, "Would ya get a load of that crock?" he asked.

Edd looked it over, "Monsters? Do they mean the Heartless?"

"Oh boy! We get a wish? Any wish?" Ed asked, jumping up and down.

"Keep your pants on Ed - no, seriously keep them on – wishes are nothing but trouble."

"Trouble?"

"Yeah, they always come with some kind of stupid catch. You want world peace? Alien invasion. You want to breath underwater? You're handed scuba gear. You want to be famous? You're only famous in some weird country like France or Japan. You want money? Counterfeit."

"You seem to know a lot about this Eddy." Edd pointed out.

"Yeah, well, I've seen it happen on TV a million times..."

"So, we're not going to check out the coliseum?" Ed asked.

"Of course we're going!" Eddy told him.

"...what?" Edd flatly asked.

"Look, we won't have to enter the tournament, but there's gonna be a lot of people there. Maybe they've seen someone from the cul-de-sac."

"Plus, we gotta see if there are any Heartless! Isn't keeping worlds safe from Heartless our job?"

Edd had to agree with Ed and Eddy.

* * *

The three walked into a building that was named "The Coliseum", and found themselves in a large room where there were a bunch of tough looking people, robots, and creatures hanging around. Some of them glared at the Eds as they walked in, but most didn't pay much mind to them. The whole place held an atmosphere of impending danger. A sort of robot was standing in the middle of the room.

"_Attention all contenders, before the real tournament can begin, you will need to pass the preliminaries. Be sure to sign up at any of the sign-up stations." _the robot announced.

"I don't see anyone, do you Eddy?" Edd asked.

"No, not really, just a bunch of guys I wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. Like that guy over there." Eddy told him as he pointed to a man in white robes wearing a straw hat and carrying a long sword.

"Huh? Isn't that-" Ed wandered off on his own to one of the sign-up stations.

"Ed? Hey, we're not entering this thing!" Eddy called after him, Ed kept on going. Eddy turned to Edd who just shrugged and they followed after Ed. They found him talking to someone who was working at the sign-up station who actually turned out to be-

"Jonny?" Edd and Eddy asked. Jonny from the cul-de-sac waved at the two, he sat at the sign-in station and Plank rested on the wall in the back.

"Hiya Eddy! Hiya Double-D!" Jonny called out._  
_

Edd and Eddy walked up to the sign-in station.

"What are you doing here Jonnyboy?" Eddy asked.

"I dunno, Plank and I just found ourselves here! Plank said that if we were gonna get anywhere, we had to get money and so we got this job." Jonny explained.

"Seems logical." said Edd.

"What are you guys up to?"

"We're heroes!" Ed told him.

"Wow! Really?"

Ed nodded and held up his hand, the keyblade materialized in his grip, "We're heroes because we were given these!"

Ed told Jonny about how the three Eds were now keyblade wielders and that they had the duty to destroy Heartless.

"What do you think, Plank?" Jonny finally asked. There was silence, and then Jonny turned to the Eds, "Plank says that it sounds legit, are you guys entering the tournament too?"

"Well..." Edd started, Jonny typed something onto a computer.

"Because signing you up is easy! All I had to do was enter your names!"

"Wait, what? We weren't here to enter this thing!" Eddy told him.

"Oh whoops..." Jonny nervously grinned.

"Jonny, can you please remove us from the roster?" Edd asked him.

"Sorry, can't. Once you're signed in, you can't sign out." Jonny told them.

"Well, ain't that just peachy..." Eddy groaned as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"_Attention all contenders, please proceed to the preliminaries. Remember, any and all employees at The Coliseum are not responsible for any injuries or death that may be the result in the tournament."_

"Don't worry! I put you guys in a team! I'm sure you'll do great!" Jonny told them.

"Jonny, you have never seen us in battle before, just what made you think that we're qualified for-"

A robot walked up to the Eds, _"You three, Team Ed, please proceed to the preliminaries. Any and all participants who have signed up must compete or pay the cancellation fee."_

"There's a cancellation fee? How much?"

"_Cancellation fee is a credit total of 5000 per participant."_

"...which is way too much than what we have." Edd told Eddy.

The Eds were forced to walk into the battlefield where the preliminaries were being held, there were many Heartless that were trying to rip apart the fighters. Many were barely struggling against the many Shadow and Soldier Heartless, but there were also new types of Heartless that floated around and wore different colors of red, blue, and yellow, each respectively causing fire, ice, and lighting to appear on the battlefield.

"Now they can use magic?" Edd asked.

"They're stealing your schtick Double-D!" Ed joked.

Eddy looked around, the coliseum had a lot of seats filled with people yelling at the fighters, cheering. There was a part of Eddy that woke up in his psyche as if it was after a long sleep, he pulled out his keyblade, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's give the crowd something to yell about!" Eddy ran towards some Soldier Heartless and started slicing through them.

"Uh oh, Eddy had that look in his eyes again." Edd noted.

Ed pulled out his keyblade, "Come on Double-D! This will be fun!" Ed ran over to join Eddy.

Edd pulled out his keyblade to join the two, "Old habits are hard to break, aren't they?"

The Eds kept together as a group and went through as many Heartless as they could find. Edd found that his Fire magic didn't work on the red floating Heartless but worked well on the blue ones. At one point, the found themselves surrounded by Soldier Heartless.

"Eddy, grab my hand!" Ed held out his hand.

"Now's not the time for a meme joke Ed." Eddy told him.

Ed grabbed onto Eddy's hand anyway, and spun him around in a circle.

"WHOA! WHOA! WHOA! WHOA!"

Eddy spun in a circle, Ed let go and Eddy flew around in a circle, striking all the Soldiers in a cyclone.

"You know, if it was anyone else throwing Eddy, I'm sure that wouldn't have happened." Edd told Ed.

When Eddy landed on the ground, he landed on his keyblade and the keyblade kept going and rammed into a new Heartless with a large body. Eddy bounced off the front of the large body, and the large body punched Eddy which made him fly back to Ed and Edd.

"Eddy! Are you alright?" Edd asked.

"That fat guy's got a good right hook." Eddy told him, rubbing his chin.

Edd used Cure on Eddy, the three stood up to face the large body that was charging right for- oh it just rammed into the Eds. Ouch. The Eds moved back, Edd having the wind knocked out of him, Ed putting up his keyblade in a guarding stance while Eddy tried to get a hit on the large body. Eddy tried the stomach, the head, and the sides, nothing. In fact, his keyblade pretty much bounced off the large body.

"It's no use! What IS this thing?" Eddy yelled.

Suddenly, the large body vanished. Behind it was the swordsman in white robes and straw hat, he had his long sword out that had dispatched the large body.

"Try attacking from behind." The swordsman told the three, he turned around and ran off to fight more of the Heartless.

"Who IS that? How did he get rid of the Heartless?" Edd asked, having caught his breath.

"Maybe it was his sword!" Ed suggested.

"Who cares? There's more Heartless to fight! We can't have that guy take all the glory!" Eddy charged to another large body and jumped over it, attacking it from behind and quickly getting rid of it, then he ran off to fight more.

"We better help him before he gets hurt, let's go Ed!"

Later, the Heartless were all vanquished. Many of the fighters who signed up for the tournament were either beat up badly or (in the case of the robots) were torn to scrap metal. In fact, the only ones who were left after the preliminaries were the Eds and the swordsman in the white robes and straw hat. The crowd cheered for the remaining four, Eddy was sucking it all in, "That's right! That's right! I'm the be- er, I mean we're the best!"

"So tired...so much..." Edd started to fall down in exhaustion, but Ed helped him stay up.

A screen above the coliseum lit up, and a robot appeared on it.

"_You have all done well, and now the real tournament can begin. Will the two remaining teams turn to face one another?"_

The Eds all turned to look at the swordsman in the white robes and straw hat, he had walked to one side of the coliseum ring and drew his sword against the Eds, "My apologies, but I must win this battle."

Eddy used Cure on Edd, and the three got ready for battle.

"_FIGHT!"_

The swordsman in the white robes charged right for the Eds incredibly fast, taking them by surprise. He swung his sword at them. The sword connected with Ed, but nothing happened.

"Hmm?"

"Hey, that didn't hurt!" Ed said out loud.

"How is this possible...wait..." the swordsman withdrew his sword and pointed at the Eds, "You three, you are not from here, are you?"

"What tipped you off?" Eddy asked.

"For one, you are each holding some of the most bizarre swords I have ever seen."

"They're called keyblades! They're used to fight the forces of darkness!" Ed exaggerated.

"Forces of darkness...hmm..."

"_**What's going on? Why aren't you killing each other?"**_ yelled a voice that came from above. The Eds and the swordsman looked up to see a black monster with horns, a green mouth with bushy red eyebrows and beard.

"AKU!" yelled the swordsman as he drew his sword, the monster put himself on the battlefield. The swordsman ran at the monster and tried to strike it, but the sword just went through the monster as if it wasn't even there.

"**Foolishly foolish samurai, did you really think that I'd risk my being here? This tournament was only to lure you in and trap your foolish self and get rid of you with those creatures that tried to take over MY world." **the large monster's hologram spoke in a deep and imposing voice.**  
**

"Your new servants are still no match for my sword, they are as weak to it as you are."

"**Perhaps so, but those were only the WEAKEST of them! Try THIS ONE!"**

There was a dark shadow that appeared above the coliseum ring, and out of it came a huge ball of darkness with glowing gold eyes and what can only be explained as tentacles coming from it from all over.

"Oh, so many inappropriate jokes..." Eddy said nonchalantly.

"Careful Eddy, you don't want the age rating to go up." Edd warned.

The tentacled Heartless swung its appendages at the Eds and the samurai, the four quickly dodged out of the way, but a tentacle managed to wrap itself around Edd. Edd hit the Heartless' body with his keyblade, but it wasn't enough to break free.

Eddy grabbed onto Ed's hand, "Okay Ed, do your thing!"

Ed threw Eddy at the Heartless, Eddy spun himself around, keyblade out. He struck the tentacle that held onto Edd, releasing him. Edd turned around and used Fire against the Heartless. It wasn't very effective.

The samurai leaped up high into the air, jumping really good, and pointed his sword down, striking the tentacled heartless in the center, but it just passed right through. The samurai landed on the ring.

"Hitting it in the center won't do anything!" Edd told the others.

"How do we destroy it?" Eddy asked.

The tentacles shot at them again, Ed swung his keyblade at the ones heading for him. After it connected, the tentacles drew back to the Heartless. The samurai noticed this.

"The tentacles, they must be its weak point!" the samurai shouted.

The four ran at the Heartless and tried to hit its tentacles, but the Heartless quickly dodged their attacks and counterattacked with its own tentacle strikes. This was getting them nowhere, Edd tried to shoot the tentacles with his Fire spell, but that only did as well as simply hitting them did. Eddy's mind raced to figure out a way to fight the Heartless, and he came up with a plan.

"Double-D, keep shooting fire at it! Ed, give me a boost!"

Edd kept casting Fire at the tentacled Heartless, keeping its attention, and Ed grabbed Eddy and threw him at the Heartless. Instead of hitting the Heartless, however, Eddy grabbed a hold of a couple of the Heartless' tentacles and dragged them down to the coliseum ring, next to the samurai. The samurai then cut off the tentacles, causing the Heartless to scream out in pain. Half the tentacles were cut off, the Heartless fell to the ground. The Eds and the samurai then proceeded to cut off the rest of the tentacles, and as you can guess, that pretty much finished the Heartless off and the whole thing fell apart where the tentacles were cut off, and it vanished into light with a heart appearing from the remains of the tentacle Heartless.

Just like last time, a bright light appeared but this time from a keyhole that was below the Eds on the coliseum ring. The Eds keyblades pointed at the keyhole and a bright light shot out of them, locking it just like the one in Cartoon Central. The light vanished, taking the keyhole with it. The crowd from the coliseum bleachers went wild, none of them really not sure what happened.

"We'd better get out of here." Eddy told the others, "They still might want us to fight each other."

The other four nodded, and they ran out of the coliseum, grabbing Jonny and Plank on the way out.

* * *

Later, the Eds, Jonny and Plank, and the samurai were together on the outskirts of the city. The samurai having telling the others his tale.

"So, you were only there to fight Aku?" Edd asked.

"Yes, but I suppose I did not think it all out." the samurai admitted.

Ed was in deep thought ever since they left the coliseum, "What's wrong big guy?" Eddy asked.

Ed shrugged, "I've been wondering all this time, why didn't your sword hurt me?" Ed asked the samurai.

"My sword was forged to destroy any and all evil, but it cannot harm the innocent." the samurai explained, "It also seemed to resonate with your blades, were they forged with the same intentions?"

The Eds all shrugged.

"Actually we don't know much about them." Edd confessed, "All we know is that those who use the keyblade are supposed to fight the Heartless."

"You mean those monsters Aku was controlling?"

The Eds nodded.

"You each held yourself well against them, who trained you?"

Eddy grinned, "Nobody, it's all talent." he bragged.

Edd looked at his keyblade, "But...why us? How do we have the potential to use these things?"

Eddy playfully elbowed Edd, "We'll worry about that later, we found Jonny and Plank, killed a giant tentacle monster, and sealed another one of those keyhole thingies so its been overall a good day. Was there anyone else with you Jonnyboy?"

"Nope, just me and Plank." Jonny told him.

"So, the others must be somewhere else! They're probably safe too!" Ed figured.

"I take it you four will be leaving then?" the samurai asked.

Eddy nodded, "I guess so, thanks for helping us back there uh...didn't catch your name."

The samurai took off his straw hat, showing off his stern but kind eyes, "They call me 'Jack'." he told them.

"Is that your real name?" Ed asked.

Jack shook his head, "I vowed to never use my true name, not until my journey is over and peace is brought back to this world."

The Eds and Jonny looked at one another, then back at Jack, "Is there anything we can do to help?" Edd asked.

Jack shook his head, "This is a journey I must take alone. I thank you for the offer though."

Jack put his hands together, and bowed. Ed did the same in response. Edd and Eddy looked at one another, shrugged, and bowed also. "_When in Rome..."_ the two thought.

* * *

In front of Kevin was a huge swarm of Shadow Heartless, beside him was the cloaked man.

"Go on, do it as I taught you."

Kevin held up his right hand, and closed his eyes, a sort of ball of dark energy materialized in his hand.

"That's it, let your anger grow and give it form."

The ball of dark energy grew larger and larger. It started to form itself into a solid object.

"You need to give it more, you're almost there. Give it pure raw emotion."

Kevin gritted his teeth, he started breathing heavily, his right hand gripped the dark energy. The solid object formed itself into a key-like shape, a wave of darkness burst from the energy, and in Kevin's hand was a medium-length keyblade that looked as though it was made of pure darkness. It had a keychain that was in the form of a solid black orb.

Kevin opened his eyes, "Wha-what is this?" he asked.

"It is a weapon of incredible force and unspeakable power, it will bring destruction upon your enemies."

"It looks stupid, why is it shaped like a key?"

"Don't question such moot points, now..." the cloaked man pointed at the swarm of Shadows, "Show me your strength."

Kevin looked over his keyblade, then at the swarm of Shadows, he felt his anger flowing within him, he felt the power forming. He ran into the swarm and started hacking away with brutal force.

The man in the cloak smiled to himself, the seeds of corruption had started to grow.

* * *

Back on the Ed-wing, Eddy was back in the pilot's chair, Edd was back in the co-pilot's chair, and Ed moved one of the passenger seats from behind them to the center of the two.

"That ought to do it, now we have a seat for the gunner!" said Ed.

"Cool! Can I fire the weapons?" Jonny asked.

"No way, those are reserved for Captain Ed, the Game Master." Eddy joked.

Ed smiled, Edd chuckled, "Well, he at least has the voice for it."

The Ed-wing flew itself out of orbit of Aku's Future, and blasted off on a new course for the next world.


	5. In the Middle of Nowhere

_**Author's Note: **__Hello readers, sorry for not updating in over a month, been very busy with finals for college (where I passed all four of my classes, BOOYAH!) plus some writer's block but I finally managed to finish this chapter...though I felt it was too long so I decided to split it up into two parts. The second part is still unfinished at the moment, but I'm cracking down tomorrow to get it done. This chapter has been a lot of fun to write, I hope it was worth the wait._

_Oh also, if you enjoy this fan fiction and still hunger for more, I have a lot more on here if you're interested. I'd really appreciate the reviews, follows, and favorites. You guys are awesome!_

* * *

On the Ed-wing, while Ed and Eddy were maneuvering through the course Edd set up, Edd decided to take some down time and went into the living quarters where Jonny told him that "Plank" challenged Edd to a chess game. Edd accepted to humor the two, but didn't count of them doing pretty well (Jonny moving the pieces for Plank), though it got to the point where Edd was one move with his knight away from checkmate.

"Plank says that if you make that move, he will rip your arms out of your sockets. Boy Plank, isn't that a bit too much?"

Edd raised an eyebrow and stared at Plank. Plank just smiled back. Edd made his move.

"Checkmate." Edd told them.

Jonny looked over at Plank, he covered Planks mouth and then looked back to Edd, "Plank is saying some things I really shouldn't repeat. No need to be a sore loser Plank."

Edd gave an amused smile, and walked back to the cockpit, Eddy was snoozing in his seat while Ed absentmindedly shot down the Heartless that were in their way. Edd took a seat in the co-pilot chair and looked at the course map, they would arrive at the next world in about thirty minutes.

"It's going to be very close. Think you can handle it Ed?"

"Huh?" Ed turned his head, still shooting down the Heartless since it was THAT easy to shoot them down.

"Nevermind, you keep doing what you're doing."

"Okay." Ed went back to shooting down Heartless.

"Say Ed, do you think we'll be able to get back home? Back to Peach Creek and back to the cul-de-sac?"

Ed smiled, "Of course I do."

"Do you think our parents are also out there, worried sick and looking for us?"

Ed's smile faded, "Probably not."

"What makes you say that?"

"Double-D, did our parents ever care about us? I mean, they were all barely around back at home."

"My mother and father had to go to their respective jobs for their careers."

"My mom didn't work, and she was always away and I had to watch Sarah."

"I'm still surprised you were trusted to watch her."

Ed glared at him, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, um, nothing." it was never a good idea to make Ed angry, but Ed seemed to get over it quick.

"Gotta admit, it was weird how all of our parents were almost never at home."

"Well, at least we acknowledge them. I do hope they're alright."

The Ed-wing soon arrived to a world that looked like a large desert with what looked like only few settlements. Eddy woke up.

"Wow...what kind of backwater world is this?" Eddy asked.

"Initiating landing sequence." Edd told them.

"We're really doing this? Landing in the middle of the nowhere?"

"Can Plank and I come with you guys?" Jonny asked.

Edd shook his head, "I think you'd be better off in the Ed-wing. Just make yourself at home, and don't touch anything."

"So I can't touch any of the air?"

"Let me rephrase that, just don't touch the computers in the cockpit, one of them might blow up the ship or something."

The Ed-wing started landing onto the world.

Ed, Edd, n Eddy got off the Ed-wing in the middle of nowhere, and sent it up into orbit with the remote. They were in the middle of what looked like a large desert, next to a long and lonesome road.

"Well, here we are in the middle of nowhere." Eddy said out loud.

"Literally, look!" Ed pointed to a sign that said "Welcome to Nowhere"

Eddy groaned, "Yep, five seconds and I already hate this world."

"There must be something here...look! In the distance!" Edd pointed far off into the distance where there was what looked like a house. Eddy put a hand over his eyes to keep the sun out.

"Don't tell me, we gotta walk all the way over there."

"I suppose so."

"You gotta be kidding me."

"Well, do you have any other ideas?"

"Yeah, we get the Ed-wing back and we park it closer."

"...wait, that _is_ a better idea, why didn't we do that in the first place?"

The Eds called back the Ed-wing, and flew over to the house. Unknown to the Eds was a dog with purple fur digging where they were going to land the Ed-wing. The dog looked up and saw the Ed-wing. It screamed, and tried to get out of the way but the Ed-wing landed on top of him. The Eds teleported out of it.

"You know, we really didn't have to _land_ the Ed-wing." Edd told them.

"Sorry, my finger slipped! Besides, it doesn't look like we got any damage." Eddy pointed out.

"We hardly even scratched the paint job!" Ed added.

Edd sighed and pushed the button on the remote that sent the Ed-wing back into orbit. The three turned towards the house, not seeing the Ed-wing lift itself off the purple dog. The purple dog was just fine, well, aside from the beat-up slapstick damage he took. The dog laughed and dragged himself out of the hole the Ed-wing made. The dog watched the Eds walk up to the porch of the house (the slapstick damage somehow vanishing) and feared for his owners, as these three obviously came from the spaceship and the dog had bad experiences with beings from space. The dog hid on the side of the porch and watched the Eds as Eddy knocked on the door.

"Hello? Anyone home?" Eddy asked.

The door opened and an old man in farmer clothes with boots, eyeglasses and a brown hat was in the doorway, "WE DON'T WANT ANY!" the door was slammed in their faces.

Eddy threw his arms up, "Well, we tried, let's go back."

The Eds turned back around and walked off the porch, Edd was the first to talk, "Maybe we can go into the nearest town and see if anyone we know is there? What do you think Ed? Ed?"

Ed was looking at the side of the porch, he thought he saw something move. Ed walked over and found the purple dog which was so small and cute that Ed just _had _to hug it, and by "hug" I mean he jumped into the air and tackled the poor doggie into a hug while screaming the word "Puppy".

Edd and Eddy walked over, "Looks like Ed made a new friend." Eddy chuckled.

"Ed, please let go of the poor animal, I don't think its owners will approve."

Ed let go, the dog breathing for air, "The things I do for love..." said the dog, but none of the Eds seemed to notice it talking.

"Making new friends, Courage?"

The Eds turned to see an old woman wearing an olive dress, a yellow apron, black boots and eyeglasses. Accompanying her was Rolf who was carrying some grocery bags.

"Oh it's Ed-boys!" Rolf called out.

"Rolf!" the Eds yelled back.

Rolf told the Eds that he was found in the wasteland that was the middle of Nowhere by the purple colored dog named Courage and the old woman named Muriel. Muriel in turn invited Rolf to stay with them since he had nowhere else to go, and Muriel's husband Eustace put him to work. Though Rolf was quite used to working on a farm, so he didn't complain.

"Was there anyone else with you Rolf?" asked Edd.

Rolf shook his head, "Nope. No frail Jimmy, or berserk Sarah, or Jonny-the-wood-boy. Rolf apologies for his failure."

"Aw, it's alright Rolf." Ed assured him.

"Oh, and we got Jonny. He's up in the Ed-wing." Eddy told him.

"The what now?" Muriel asked.

"That's our spaceship!" Ed told her.

"Gummi ship, actually." Edd corrected.

Ed shrugged, "Same thing."

"Oh my, a space ship! How exciting!" Muriel exclaimed.

"Heck, we can get going right now if you're ready to go stretch." Eddy told Rolf.

Rolf shook his head, "No, Rolf must repay for the hospitality given."

"Oh, that's quite alright Rolf. You can go with your friends." Muriel assured him.

Rolf shook his head, "Thank you, but Rolf must uphold his end of the deal. Rolf keeps promises."

"Such a nice boy, isn't he?"

There was then a loud noise coming from somewhere close, it sounded like a low growl or roar.

"What was that?" Edd asked.

Eddy quickly looked around, "Heartless?"

"Nah, it's just my belly." Ed told them, he pat his belly. He hadn't eaten anything since Nazz's party which was approximately a day ago.

"Would you three like to stay for dinner?" Muriel offered.

Edd held up a hand, "Oh, we wouldn't want to intrude on-"

Eddy pushed Edd's hand down, "Sure! It would be rude to turn down free food, right Double-D?"

"Eddy, we have food in the Ed-wing."

"Great! We can turn it into a potluck!"

Muriel clasped her hands, "That would be wonderful!"

* * *

The Eds called down the Ed-wing and gathered some foodstuff from the kitchen of the Ed-wing, making a note to restock on food before they leave this world. They also had Jonny and Plank bring out food with them.

"First you want us to stay in, now you want us to go out?" Jonny asked.

"Keep any and all questions to yourself until after the tour." Eddy told him.

They all brought food into the kitchen of the house where Muriel and Eddy began cooking. Ed, Edd, Jonny, and Plank went into the living room where Muriel's husband Eustace was reading the paper in his chair. Rolf was outside working on some farm work Eustace had him do. They passed the time with Ed playing with Courage, Edd looking over the small selection of books the old couple had, and Jonny decided to bug Eustace with Plank for no real reason.

"So how old are you?" Jonny asked.

"None of yer business." Eustace told him.

"What kind of farm is this?"

"Anything I darn well want."

"See anything good in the paper?"

"I WOULD if some nosy kid wasn't bugging me."

"Really? Who's bugging you?"

"THAT'S IT!" Eustace reached to behind his chair and pulled out a large green mask with large teeth, a large nose, and what can only be described as crazy eyes and yelled at Jonny with an "OOOGA-BOO-BOOGA!"

Jonny, Ed, Edd, and Courage screamed at the sight of Eustace, Edd fainted and the others all ran outside.

"Eustace? Are you being nice to our guests?" Muriel called from the kitchen.

"Uh huh." Eustace told her while putting away the mask, he turned on the TV.

* * *

Ed, Jonny, Plank, and Courage were at the side of the house gasping for air.

"Boy, that was close!" Ed told the two.

"Was that thing one of the Heartless?" Jonny asked.

"I dunno, maybe." Ed saw Courage starting to freak out and waving his arms around.

"What is it boy? Little Timmy-Tom fell down a well? Uncle Fester is trapped in a burning barn? Can I save a lot of money on my car insurance by switching to Gecko?"

Courage shook his head and kept waving his arms around, making noises that sounded kinda like a worried barking noise and then Courage changed his physical appearance into a dark shadow monster, and then back to normal. He whimpered a bit.

"I didn't know dogs could do that." said Jonny.

Ed pointed at Courage "...I think...he's trying to tell us something..."

Courage put a paw on his face and shook his head.

"Is there a monster, boy?" Jonny asked.

Courage put his paw down and nodded making a noise that sounded like "Uh-huh!"

"Is this monster a Heartless or shadow?" Ed asked.

Courage nodded more, "Uh-huh!"

"And it's attacking Lisa from down the street?"

Courage made a confused face, and shook his head.

"Can you show us where it's at?" Jonny asked.

Courage nodded, "Uh-huh!"

Ed grinned, "Don't worry doggy! I'll take care of it!" Ed stood up, "Come along Jonny, we're gonna go for a WALK!"

Ed, Jonny, Plank, and Courage headed off towards the desert wasteland with Courage in front, none of them noticing that the sun was starting to set.

* * *

Back in the house, Muriel and Eddy were finishing preparing a pork roast with mashed potatoes.

"You're quite the cook for a boy your age." Muriel told Eddy.

Eddy chuckled, "Yeah, well, my parents are almost never home so I have make my food myself."

"Oh you poor dear, that must be hard for you."  
"Nah, it's no big deal. I figure it'll come in handy when I leave home."

Edd walked into the kitchen, rubbing his head, "I feel like I blacked out for a bit...it smells good in here."

"It's almost ready, just need to add in a wee bit of vinegar..." Muriel said as Eustace walked into the kitchen.

"Muriel, where's my dinner?" he demanded to know.

"Almost ready Eustace, why don't you call in the boys outside?"

Eustace grumbled and walked to the backdoor and opened it a crack, and yelled "GET IN HERE!"

Rolf dragged himself out of the large hole he dug for a new well, and walked back inside all covered in mud and dirt.

"Be sure to wash your hands, dear." Muriel told him.

"Rolf shall comply." Rolf walked up the stairs to the bathroom, a little while later he came back down all clean and shiny. Eddy had the mashed potatoes in a bowl and set it on the table, Muriel had the roast and set it on the table as well. Muriel looked around.

"I say, where is Courage? He can smell my food a mile away."

* * *

"Wow..." said Jonny.

"Woah..." said Ed.

Plank didn't say anything.

Courage had lead all of them to what looked like a large chasm in the middle of the desert, there was no easy way down.

"Is this where you saw the monster?" Jonny asked.

Couraged nodded with a "Mm hmm!"

Ed got on his stomach and looked down, "Hello?" he called into the hole. There was a noise down in it.

"Is it one of them?" Jonny asked.

Ed shrugged, "Only one way to find out." Ed got up, and took a couple of steps backwards, then he turned around and started running, he jumped up into the air and yelled "GERONIMO!" as he dived into the abyss.

Courage watched Ed go down in horror, he turned towards the readers, "Either that guy is totally nuts, or my name is Francis Fitzgerald...and it's not."

There was a rumbling underground, something of a tremor. There was a roar that got louder and louder as the tremors got more and more stronger, Jonny, Plank, and Courage fell back as a huge worm-shaped heartless shot out of the ground with Ed on top of it. The tremor-causing, worm-shaped Heartless flailed around to shake Ed off, but Ed held onto what looked like large spines of the thorn variety. The Heartless leaped up into the air and shot right back down to the ground where it went under, and Ed let go before he could get sucked in.

Jonny was shocked at the sight, Courage just about had a heart attack.

"HOLY SANDWORM! WHAT WAS THAT?" Jonny screamed, panicking.

Ed dusted off his shirt and jacket, "It was a Heartless! A big one too!" Ed got out his keyblade, ready to battle.

"Can you stop it by yourself?" Jonny asked.

"I can try! Go get Eddy and Double-D!" Ed told him as the tremors got bigger.

"Why didn't we get them to come with us before?"

"Because then I wouldn't get the chance to fight a giant Heartless by myself! It's more exciting and dramatic that way!" Ed told him with his tongue out.

"Definitely nuts!" Courage screamed, but nobody heard him.

As the sandworm Heartless shot out of the ground with a roar. Ed ran right towards it, laughing like a maniac. Jonny, Plank, and Courage ran in the opposite direction back towards the house.


	6. Sandworm

Eddy, Edd, and Rolf were outside calling for Ed, Jonny, Courage, and to a lesser extent, Plank.

"Oh come ON Ed! I slave over a hot stove and you're not even around to EAT any of the stuff I make?" Eddy yelled in anger.

"I hope he's okay, we haven't seen that many Heartless around here as of yet..." Edd thought out loud.

"What is it with these things with no hearts you two keep talking about? How can an beast live without a heart?" Rolf told them.

Edd sighed, "Rolf, we found it best not to question anything else about the Heartless than we already have, and just focus more on trying to get rid of them before they hurt anyone."

"I'm guessing there aren't that many here since there's little to no people on this world." Eddy pointed out.

Just then, Jonny, Plank, and Courage ran up to Edd, Eddy, and Rolf. Both out of breath.

Eddy folded his arms, "Well, well, look who decided to show up!" he said in a tone an annoyed housewife would use.

"No time..." Jonny gasped, "Ed...in trouble!"

"He's going to be by the time I find him..."

"Eddy, please stop that. What happened Jonny?" Edd asked.

Jonny and Courage explained to the others what happened with Courage pantomiming and Jonny exaggerating that Ed was riding the sandworm like a rodeo bull.

"Okay, okay, we get it! Giant Heartless, Ed can't do a thing without us, it's going to wreck havoc, and we need to get it done before dinner gets cold. Come on Double-D." Eddy started running in the direction where Ed was fighting the giant sandworm.

"You two stay here where it's safe, it shouldn't take us too long to get rid of the Heartless." Jonny, Rolf, and Courage watched Edd run after Eddy.

"So what do we do now?" Jonny asked Rolf.

"Do you two need to wash your hands?"

**XXX**

Eddy and Edd found Ed on top of a large boulder with his keyblade out, his eyes darting around.

"Ed, what the heck are you doing?" Eddy called out.

Ed looked at Eddy, "I'm getting the high ground! Everyone knows that having the high ground means you have the advantage!"

"That only works if you're using ballistics or artillery Ed! You have a giant key!"

The giant sandworm shot out of the ground and flew at Ed, who barely got out of the way.

"Shoot it Double-D! SHOOT IT!" Eddy yelled.

Edd cast his Fire at the sandworm, but the sandworm was too fast and dodged it. It charged back at them.

"Get to the high ground!" Ed yelled.

"That's not going to work!" Edd yelled back.

"Just get up here!" Ed grabbed Edd and Eddy and pulled them up to the rock, and the sandworm crashed into it.

"Charge!" Eddy jumped onto the dazed sandworm, striking it with his keyblade. This did nothing. Ed grabbed Edd and jumped down onto the sandworm too.

"So what's the plan?" Edd asked Eddy.

Eddy was drawing a blank, "Uhhh..."

"You don't have a plan?"

"Give me a minute, I'll think of something."

The sandworm started moving again, the Eds grabbed hold of the sandworm's spines, but Edd's fingers slipped due to his weak grip, Ed grabbed hold of Edd's arm with his free hand. The three rode the sandworm around for a bit, hanging on for dear life as the sandworm tried to shake them off.

"Double-D! Use your magic on it!" Eddy yelled.

Edd used his Fire spell again, and it damaged the sandworm, but not by much.

"I think it's used to heat Eddy!" Edd yelled back.

"Then maybe we freeze it?" Ed asked.

"A thing this size? We're going to need a blizzard!" Edd told him, suddenly ice shot out of Edd's keyblade and the sandworm roared when it got hit with it.

"That's it! Keep doing that Double-D!" Eddy yelled.

Edd used his new Blizzard spell on the sandworm, and it started to slow down, Eddy also tried using the Blizzard spell, but he couldn't focus enough. Ed was having more trouble then Eddy.

Suddenly, the sandworm flung the three of them off. Ed landed on his feet first, and caught Edd and Eddy, he set them down and they all pointed their keyblades at the sandworm that was preparing to charge again.

"With our powers combined, we may be able to destroy it!" Edd told the others.

"Alright, let's focus! You too Ed!" Eddy told Ed, the three of them closed their eyes and focused on the spell. The sandworm was getting closer, it's mouth was wide open to swallow the Eds whole. Light started to form with the keyblades in close proximity as the Eds' power started to manifest. The sandworm's mouth was nearly inches from the Eds when their eyes opened up.

"BLIZZARD!" the three yelled.

What happened after that is a bit hard to explain, there was a light flash that blurred the Eds' vision and a lot of combined energy shot out at the sandworm. When the light cleared, the sandworm was seen in what looked like a large glacier. The Eds looked at it in silence, until Ed walked up and tapped on the ice with his keyblade. Light came out of the crack Ed made, and more cracks formed with light coming out of them! Soon enough the entire glacier broke off in half, and the giant sandworm vanished leaving nothing but a floating heart appearing in its place which soon vanished. The Eds waited around for the bright light from the keyhole, but nothing happened.

"...where's the keyhole?" Ed asked.

Edd and Eddy shrugged.

"Let's go back, we got food." Eddy told him.

Ed rubbed his belly, "Yeah, food sounds good, I'm hungry."

The three Eds walked back to the house.

**XXX**

Back at the house, the Eds found Rolf, Jonny, Plank, and Courage being attacked by a huge horde of Heartless. Jonny trying to shield Plank, Rolf fending them off with a mallet, and Courage starting to panic. So the Eds ran in and saved them from the Heartless in record time in such a way that was so incredible that words would not give it justice.

"WOW! That was amazing!" Jonny yelled out after all the Heartless were gone.

"Rolf could not believe his eyes!" Rolf said in amazement.

Plank didn't say anything, "You said it, Plank!" Jonny told him.

Ed had a large grin, "Well, we did it! We saved the world!"

"We still didn't find that keyhole." Edd reminded him.

"So what? It's not like they're important or anything." Eddy told him.

"They might be, they always seemed to show up after we got rid of the giant Heartless."

"But that could mean anything...what's up with the dog?" Eddy pointed at Courage who was flailing his arms around in a panic.

Ed got down on his knees, "What is it boy? Is your owner missing?"

"Wow, you got that on the first try?" Jonny asked.

"Wait, what happened?" Edd asked.

Rolf took a deep breath, "It had happened so fast..."

**XXX**

Everyone decided to start eating without the Eds, and then suddenly a black portal materialized from behind Muriel. From the black portal came what looked like a young man wearing what looked like a black skin tight suit with the Heartless emblem on the chest, and a black mask obscuring his face. The person in the mask covered Muriel's mouth and dragged her back into the portal, Heartless then came from the portal into the kitchen, everyone remaining screamed. Eustace ran up the stairs and locked himself in the bathroom, leaving Rolf, Jonny, Plank, and Courage to fend for themselves.

**XXX**

"Muriel was taken?" Ed asked.

"A person in black?" Edd asked.

"You ate the food?" Eddy asked.

Everyone looked at Eddy with perplexed looks.

"Oh come on, I worked hard on that meal! I have an ego to uphold!"

"Eddy, I believe an abduction is much more serious than your ego." Edd told him.

"Plus that guy had Heartless with him! A guy like that really can't be good! He must be planning something terrible!" Ed told him.

**XXX**

In the dark castle, the young man in the mask and black suit set down the unconscious Muriel in front of the cloaked man.

"Ah..yes, she is one of the pure of heart."

The masked young man removed his mask, he turned out to be Kevin if you haven't guessed yet, "How can you tell?" Kevin asked.

"I can see it...the bright light burning inside her heart...can't you?"

Kevin looked over Muriel, all he could see was an unconscious old woman that he brought here for safe keeping, he looked over at Nazz who still rested peacefully in stasis.

"So, does this person go into a tube too?" he asked.

"Precisely"

"We're gonna need a bigger tube."

"An easy fix, I assure you. Now go rest, using dark portals can strain your body, even with that suit on."

Kevin looked down at his suit, "Are you really sure this suit will protect me from the darkness?"

"It already has, what's wrong with it?"

"It makes me look like an emo."

"You'd rather risk your heart, mind, and body than your sense of fashion?"

Kevin thought about this for a moment, then shrugged, "Fine, there's nothing wrong with it."

**XXX**

The whole kidnapping situation was explained to Eustace who was still locked up in the bathroom. He didn't seem to want to come out. Ed, Edd, Jonny, Plank, and Courage sat outside waiting for Eddy and Rolf to come back from town with supplies. Courage was trying to communicate with the others.

"I think he wants to come with us." Ed told the others, Courage nodded.

"I wish he could, but I don't think that's a good idea." Edd told him.

"Why not?" asked Jonny.

"Well, we'd be taking him away from his world and he'd be going into another one. His very presence might cause people to question where he came from and what he's doing there." Edd explained.

"So? We're doing the same thing, besides isn't it good that more people know about more worlds? Those guys back at Cartoon Central seemed to know it already." Ed told him.

"Yes but...umm...hmm..." Edd couldn't think of a rebuttal.

"So, what's the problem?"

"Fine, I suppose he can come with us."

Courage jumped up in the air shouting "Yes!" but nobody seemed to hear him. Courage then ran off towards the windmill.

"What's gotten into him?" Jonny asked.

Ed shrugged, but he started following Courage. Edd, Jonny, and Plank followed. They stopped at the base of the windmill and Courage started digging in the ground. The others just watched Courage dig into the ground until he came back up with something in his hands. Courage gave it to Ed, it was a keychain with a model windmill.

"Cool, a windmill!" as Ed held the keychain in his left hand, his keyblade materialized and vibrated in his right hand, "What the-" the keyblade reacted to the keychain, it started to glow a bright light.

"Ed, what's happening?" Edd asked.

An impulse ran through Ed, and it told him to put the keychain on his keyblade, removing the one that had the sun motif. A bright light engulfed everyone's vision, and when it died down, Ed was holding a brand new keyblade. The keyblade looked like a key that was built out of a huge old-style black windmill blade, near the far end of the blade was what looked like a small green island and on that island was what looked like a small red and white windmill that turned by itself.

"Remarkable..." Edd finally said.

"Way cool!" Jonny said.

Courage made a "Mm-hmm" sound.

Plank said nothing.

Ed grinned and held up his new weapon with a form of pride that Ed rarely showed, "I claim this keyblade in the name of Ed! By the power of McRonalds, yum."

Ed decided to name the keyblade "Turn Forever" but nobody asked why. Then they were interrupted by another bright light, this time it came from the windmill above them.

"Look!" Jonny yelled as he pointed up, Ed, Edd, and Courage looked up to see the windmill blades spin faster and faster until what looked like a keyhole appeared, Ed and Edd looked at each other and nodded, they took out their keyblades and pointed them at the keyhole. A bright light came from them, and they shot into the keyhole, having it vanish with a locking noise.

"This just keeps getting easier, huh Double-D?" Ed asked.

Edd didn't tell him, but he felt that things might just get even more difficult.

**XXX**

Eddy and Rolf returned soon after that and the Ed-wing was called down, the Eds, Rolf, Jonny and Plank, and Courage all boarded it.

"So we got a dog now?" Eddy asked, looking over at Courage.

"Well, yes, I suppose we do." Edd answered.

Courage was a bit uneasy in the ship, Ed picked him up and took him to the living area where Rolf, Jonny, and Plank were at.

Edd sat down in the co-pilot chair, mapping out the route, he yawned a bit. Eddy went back to the napping position he was in before, but he didn't go to sleep yet.

"Say Double-D, what do you say we call it a day? You look like you haven't slept in weeks."

Edd did feel tired, the constant battles he and the Eds had with the Heartless within the past ten or so hours were starting to get to him. Edd then remembered that he hadn't eaten either, so he agreed with Eddy to just rest before blasting off again. The two walked to the living area of the Ed-wing where the others were eating the leftovers of the potluck.

"Hey! Save some for me!" Eddy yelled as he ran for the food, Edd couldn't help but chuckle to himself.

**XXX**

Inside the castle, the six shadowy figures had gathered. The shadow with the cloak addressed them.

"The time has come for you all to act. You are to carry out your orders as they are. Capture the pure of hearts and await my apprentice. He will deliver them to me."

"What exactly do ya want with them again?" asked the shadow with the crown.

"All will be revealed soon. Your reward for completing your orders is to keep your control over the Heartless. With that, you will have no problem in taking over your worlds."

"No problem? There's still those stupid kids with those stupid keys!" yelled the shadow with the pipe.

"If they burn you up so much, then deal with them yourself. You won't have any problem with frying a few annoying brats, would you?"

The shadow with the smoking pipe muttered something.

The shadow with the mask turned to leave, "Staying here seems pointless then. I am off."

The shadow in the floating chair hovered himself out, "As am I! I must prepare my robots AND Heartless for WAR! A-HA-HA! A-HA-HA-HA-HA!"

Soon, all but two shadowy figures were in the room.

"You're still here?" asked the cloaked shadow.

The hairy shadow looked at the cloaked shadow with dark, cold eyes, "I am still not trusting you with your 'all will be revealed soon' business. I demand explanation before I go and proceed with the plan that you have planned out yet won't tell us about."

"I didn't say you had to trust me. I simply say that you have to follow my orders."

"And what if I do not want to follow YOUR orders?"

The cloaked shadow lifted a hand, something that could only be described as dark energy came out of the hairy shadow who screamed an animal-like scream.

"You no longer have control over the Heartless." as the cloaked shadow said that, the eyes of Heartless appeared all around the hairy shadow. The Heartless drew closer and closer.

"Get them away from me!" the hairy shadow yelled out.

"There's nothing I can do to help you." The Heartless drew closer.

**XXX**

The screams of what sounded like the shrieks of a monkey could be heard throughout the castle. In the room Kevin was provided, he laid down on his bed wondering both what the screaming was, but more importantly he feel that he saw someone familiar to him, two in fact, when he brought Muriel here for safe keeping. But he couldn't really remember who they were.

**XXX**

**End of Chapter Extras!**

_**Ed's Battle Plan**_

_Step One: Get to the high ground._

_Step Two: ?_

_Step Three: Defeat the sandworm Heartless!_

_**Edd's Battle Plan**_

_Step One: Do whatever Eddy says, never questioning what could go wrong._

_Step Two: ?_

_Step Three: Defeat the sandworm Heartless!_

_**Eddy's Battle Plan**_

_Step One: RIDE THE SANDWORM!_

_Step Two: ?_

_Step Three: Defeat the sandworm Heartless!_

_**Five Tropes for the Road:**_

_**Character Development**: This is after Big Picture Show, so the Eds (or at least Eddy) have grown as characters, and will continue to grow._

_**Kid Heroes: **The Eds, (of course) though they're more or less teenagers._

_**The Leader:** Eddy is a Type III and Type IV at times._

_**Parental Neglect:** Ed and Edd discuss it in this chapter, (to be honest I've always pictured Ed's mom as physical and emotionally abusive to him and Sarah being a by-product of mimicking her mom's actions.)_

_**Take That:** Half the idea for this fan fiction was to point out some of the more asinine ideas and story plots in Kingdom Hearts, or rather it's more or less deconstructing Kingdom Hearts and giving it a more original twist._


	7. Brothers Are Stupid

**Special thanks to koriolander from DeviantArt for making the cover for this fanfic.**

* * *

In what looked like a huge, dark, and red futuristic laboratory, a large army of what looked like battle robots stood before a tall and scrawny teenager with black hair in a weird haircut (with what looked like an "M" in his hair) wearing glasses, black gloves, black boots, a black cape (that was flowing due to a fan), and what looked like a black bodysuit that only covered the torso and part of his lower body leaving his arms and legs bare. Kind of a strange fashion statement.

"The time has come my minions! For too long has that pint-size wrench monkey mocked me with his lower intellect and beautiful sister! But today I, Mandark, shall have the last laugh as we will storm his laboratory, destroy his lab, and take away his heart! A-HA-HA! A-HA-HA-HA-HA!"

Near the back of the row or robots were two robots who turned to each other, "Dude, does this guy really think he's gonna be taken seriously?" asked the one on the left.

The one on the right shrugged, "Don't ask me, I'm just here for the paycheck."

"Wait, you're getting PAID?"

* * *

In the Ed-wing, Ed and Eddy were in deep discussion in their underwear.

"I'm telling ya Ed, Gordon would totally beat Jack in a gunfight. He has more weapons." Eddy told him.

"Yeah, but Jack can set people ON FIRE or electrocute him!" Ed retorted.

"Gordon dealt with aliens who used all kinds of weird alien technology on him, he's probably used to the damage Jack could put on him."

"Jack could mess around with his mind and make him go berserk at the distance! Then snipe him with electric buckshot!"

"What are you two arguing about?" Edd asked, carrying their only sets of clothes in his hands. He had just done the laundry.

"Double-D, who do you think will win in a fight? Gordon Freeman from Half-Life or Jack from Bioshock?" Eddy asked.

"I don't play video games, so I wouldn't know. Can you please put your clothes on now?" Edd threw the clothes of the two at them, and they quickly put them on.

"Aww, I like being naked..." Ed groaned.

"Ed, that's disgusting. And lacking in proper etiquette."

"Next you'll be telling us that we have to wash our hands before and after eating." Eddy joked.

"Ha-ha, whatever. Are we nearing our destination?" Edd looked at the navigation screen, they were getting closer to the world they were traveling to. This new world looked a bit like Peach Creek, but more different.

"You guys miss home too?" Ed asked the others. They nodded.

"Shall I make preparations for entering the airzone?" Edd asked.

"Yeah, get on that, I need to get my keyblade ready for Heartless slaying." Eddy got out of his chair and walked back to the living quarters. Edd sat down in his chair and prepared the ship to enter the new world.

* * *

"DEE DEE! GET OUT OF MY LABORATORY! AND TAKE YOUR FRIEND WITH YOU!"

Many explosions were heard in the blue colored laboratory as the very short, red-headed, Sweedish sounding kid in a lab coat, black boots, purple gloves, and glasses yelled at his much taller blond haired sister who wore a pink ballet leotard and shoes. Dee Dee was taking pleasure in destroying everything that her little brother held dear, but she was not alone. Alongside Dee Dee was Sarah, who also liked to break things. The two of them were laughing and giggling and not at all hearing the kid's cries for ceasing. He put his arms over his head, and put his head on his desk.

"_Dexter? A moment of your time?"_

Dexter looked up at his computer's AI who showed up as a hologram with the looks and voice of a blue android woman.

"Can it wait? I am wallowing in sadness here."

"_I am afraid not, scanners have picked up a foreign space craft entering the world's atmosphere. Foreign life forms have been detected inside the space craft, along with some sort of...hmm now that is odd."  
_

Dexter sat up, "What is it?"

"_One of them seems to be holding something...familiar. Yet my scanners can't fully recognize it."_

"Oh great, there is probably a bug in your system, I will look into it later."

"_Dexter, what about the foreign space craft?"_

Dexter had a sort of devilish grin on his face, "Simple! Prepare Robo-Dexo!"

* * *

Everyone in the Ed-wing was at the bridge, seeing the new world.

"Oh-ho! A new town filled with people!" Rolf exclaimed in jest.

"All the people down there look like ants, huh Plank?" Jonny joked.

Plank was silent.

Courage was afraid with how high up they were.

Edd looked over the area, "We will need to find a place to disembark, now where would be a nice-"

"INCOMING!" Ed pointed out the window, there was a giant robot flying towards them that was all white and shiny metal with large metal gloves, it threw a punch at the Ed-wing.

"MOVE!" Eddy yelled, Edd typed in a few commands, nearly dodging the punch.

A loud voice came from the giant robot. _**"EAT THIS! ALIEN SCUM!"**_

What looked like a bunch of missiles showed up outside of the Robo-Dexo, all aimed at the Ed-wing.

"...oh this is gonna SUCK..." Eddy groaned as all the missiles were shot at them.

Thinking fast, Edd opened up a switchboard that held a big red button, "It's our only chance!" Edd smashed the button before anyone got a chance to say anything.

The missiles struck the Ed-wing, destroying it, and reducing it all to gummi blocks that fell to the ground. The Robo-Dexo did a sort of fist-pump in celebration.

Inside the Robo-Dexo, Dexter was celebrating himself, "The aliens have been eliminated! Mission accomplished!" Dexter got out some root beer and toasted to himself.

"_Dexter, the life forms have been detected, they are in the lab."_

Dexter spat out his root beer, "WHAT?"

* * *

"W-what the heck _was _that?" Eddy asked.

"An emergency teleportation field, it supposedly evacuates every organic life form in the ship to the safest area the ship could find." Edd explained.

"Is that why we are in such an empty hollow?" Rolf asked.

They were in what seemed to be a long abandoned place, many large and broken machines resided in the area. Old and forgotten.

"It's giving Plank the creeps..." Jonny said in an unsettled voice.

"Don't worry Plank! We'll be okay!" Ed told the piece of wood.

Plank was silent.

Courage was looking in one direction with an ear up.

"Huh? What is it, boy?" Ed asked.

Courage made some sounds and pointed in the direction he was looking at.

"Do you smell food?" Ed asked.

Courage put a paw to the face, and started heading in the direction he was pointing at.

"What? I was just kidding!" Ed told him as he followed. The others shrugged and followed in suit.

Courage led the group through the abandoned area full of broken machinery. After awhile, Jonny put an ear to Plank's mouth, "Plank says that he can hear thunder!"

Actually, those were the sounds of explosions that were coming from further into the lab. Everyone picked up the pace as they headed further and further into the lab.

"These contraptions are making Rolf uneasy." Rolf said out loud.

"Why? They're nothing but junk! There's more broken robots here than an aftermath of a Japanese robot team deathmatch!" Eddy told him.

Ed smiled, "Japanese Robot Team Deathmatch? I love that show!"

The group made their way to the main parts of the laboratory where they saw a bunch of robots putting out fires and fixing various equipment that was broken. The Eds, Jonny, Plank, Rolf, and Courage looked around in awe (and a bit of fear) at the wreckage around them for it was different from what they have seen with the abandoned, old, broken machines they saw before. No, this wreckage originated from a more sinister source.

"Baby sister!" Ed happily yelled out as he saw Sarah with Dee Dee as they tore apart another machine that Dexter had spent hours building. Sarah turned her head at Ed, and then saw Edd with him, she stopped what she was doing and ran over to the group. Ed opened up his hands for a hug, but Sarah instead pounced on Edd, hugging him. "Oh Double-D! I knew you'd come save me!"

Edd could swear his bones were being crushed by a girl who was only three years younger than him. He lost the ability to speak.

Ed tried to talk to his sister, "Uh...Sarah?"

"SHUT UP STUPID! WE'RE HAVING A MOMENT HERE!" Sarah barked at him.

Ed frowned, Eddy put an arm over his shoulder, "Cheer up big guy, at least your brat of a sister is alright." Eddy told him in a hushed voice.

Jonny watched Sarah pretty much suffocate Edd and looked over at Rolf, "Uh...are they being shipped?" Jonny asked.

Rolf was confused, "Shipped? There are no ports here! No water either!"

Eddy overheard the two and started laughing, Ed laughed along though he didn't know why, Dee Dee came over and laughed too, "Who are you guys? New neighbors?" she asked them.

Eddy turned towards her, "Nah, we're just visitors from another world, it's a long story."

"Ooh! Tell me! Tell me!"

* * *

It was around that time that Mandark's machines of malice were tunneling underground with giant drills. The plan was to drill under Dexter's lab and then break into it, this was a secret attack that couldn't fail since the ground somehow blocked the scanners of Dexter's computer. The army of mixed robots and Heartless under Mandark's control marched behind the massive drills. The robots were all humanoid replicas of Mandark with arm cannons instead of human hands or forearms, each having a visor for eyes that had a sort of scanner that moved left to right as they marched. The Heartless were all varieties of Heartless the Eds had faced before, colored Heartless, armored Heartless, and soldier Heartless. All of them were followed behind Mandark himself as he sat in his hover chair with one leg over the other with a devilish grin on his face.

"After today, I will be the only genius this world has, and soon it will all be mine! AH-HA-HA! AH-HA-HA-HA-HA!"

* * *

"...and that's about it." Eddy finished up telling Dee Dee about what's been happening in the story so far, in that time, they have all moved from the lab to the living room in the house that Dexter and Dee Dee lived in.

"So you guys are aliens?" Dee Dee asked.

"Well, technically yes..." Edd answered, he had gotten out of Sarah's clutches, she sat next to him on the couch.

"We are? Cool!" Ed yelled, he sat on the floor in front of the TV with Jonny, Plank and Courage.

"Who cares? Now that you're here, let's go. I'm bored of this place and we have to find Jimmy before something happens to him." Sarah told them.

Eddy shrugged, "Sure, let's go, but our ship is wrecked. Some jerk in a giant robot destroyed it."

"Giant robot?" Dee Dee asked.

"Yeah, is that a thing around here?"

Dee Dee laughed, "No, it was probably just my dorky little brother. He's always using robots!"

"Brothers are stupid." Sarah remarked.

"I know, right?" Dee Dee giggled.

Ed sat curled up in a ball in the corner with a spotlight over him.

"Growing mushrooms, eh simple-Ed-boy?" Rolf asked, standing over him.

The front door was then suddenly opened and slammed as the short Dexter ran inside the house.

"Hey Dexter, we got alien visitors!" yelled Dee Dee.

"Not now! I got to get rid of the alien visitors in my lab!" Dexter yelled back as he ran up the stairs.

"...not that bright is he?" Edd asked Dee Dee.

"I told ya brothers were stupid." Sarah told him.

Ed slumped more, Jonny started poking him with Plank which caused Ed to fall over.

"I think he broke." Rolf told him.

* * *

Dexter grabbed a ray gun that was much bigger than him and ran to his computer, "Computer! Where are the aliens?"

"_Dexter, they are no longer in the lab."_

"WHERE ARE THEY?" Dexter demanded.

"_They are now in the living room, with Dee Dee."_

Dexter stood there for a bit, his eye twitched, "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME EARLIER?"

"_I thought you would find them for your- Dexter, the lab's defense grid has been breached. Someone is breaking into the-" _Dexter's computer then shut off, as did the power in his lab.

Dexter looked around in panic as he heard the sounds of metal being ripped apart echoed throughout the empty laboratory, it soon stopped and a familiar laughter replaced it.

"AH-HA-HA! AH-HA-HA-HA-HA!"

"Mandark! I know that annoying laugh anywhere!" Dexter angrily yelled.

"Annoying? It's not annoying!" Mandark yelled back.

"Yes it is! It is worse than a sponge laughing in a high pitched voice!"

"That doesn't make sense!"

"It would if you get the reference!"

"Well I don't! So it's not clever or funny in any way! Wait, why am I being distracted by this?"

"So I can turn on the emergency back-up power, you dunce!" Dexter turned on the emergency generator, turning on at least most of the lights in the lab. Now Dexter saw the large amount of Mandark-droids that were marching through the lab, plus the Heartless.

"What in the world..."

The Mandark-droids shot out a sort of hologram of Mandark's face, "Feast your eyes, Dexter, for these marvelous creatures will be your undoing!"

The Heartless made their way towards Dexter in a very unnatural manner, "Mandark, you insane fool! What are these things?"

"You'll soon find out. Mandark-droids, destroy the lab! Heartless, ATTACK!" The Heartless started charging towards Dexter who started firing his ray gun at them. The rays from the gun hit the Heartless but did little to nothing. Dexter was about to run, but the Heartless were closing in.

"LOOK OUT!"

Just then, Dexter was pulled away from the Heartless quickly by Ed as Eddy charged in to fight the mass that were about to fatally harm Dexter, Edd was supporting with fire, ice, and healing magic. As soon as Dexter grasped what was going on, he pointed at Ed, "Who the heck are you three supposed to be?" Dexter demanded.

Ed gave a smile, "Well right now, we're big damn heroes since we got here _just_ in the nick of time!" Ed pulled out his Turn Forever keyblade and ran ahead to join the other Eds as they fought the familiar Heartless.

They were getting easier to take care of for the Eds since they were getting stronger and stronger with each battle. With this battle experience, and being familiar with the keyblade, Ed got the idea of throwing the keyblade at the Heartless in front of him. He got ready to throw his keyblade, storing up power by holding it over his shoulder..

"Ed, what are you doing?" Eddy yelled.

Ed threw his keyblade at the Heartless, it spun as it hit and vanquished soldier after soldier and it even went up to hit some of the colored magic-using Heartless. When it had gone far enough, Ed flicked his wrist and his keyblade materialized into his hand again. Edd and Eddy were awe-struck.

"Remind me to ask how you did that big guy." Eddy told Ed as he went back to fighting the Heartless his own way by quickly running forward and thrusting his keyblade into pretty much everything that was a Heartless.

Edd on the other hand focused more on his magic, he felt his head buzzing again as he felt another spell coming into knowledge, but it hadn't come yet. Edd instead used his Fire, Blizzard, and occasional Cure spells until all the Heartless were taken care of.

Mandark was not amused, "You! You are those keyblade jerks!" Mandark then realized something, "Wait! If I manage to take you losers out...Mandark-droids! Eliminate them!"

The Mandark-droids concentrated their fire on the Eds who quickly tried to avoid them, Edd got struck by one and fell back, it hurt more than a strike from a Soldier Heartless.

"Ooohhh...my head..." being shot by the Mandark-droid sent an electrical charge through Edd. The buzzing in his head got even worse, but now he could see the new spell clearly.

"THUNDER!" Edd's keyblade shot up, and electricity shot out of it and made its way to a Mandark-droid, short-circuiting it quickly. Edd took advantage of this breakthrough and cast more thunder spells with Ed and Eddy picking up what was left over, rendering the Mandark-droids into useless scraps of metal.

Soon there were only two Mandark-droids left, one of them looked at the other, "He don't pay me enough for this."

The other one looked back a the first one, "Let's get out of here!"

The two Mandark-droids ran back to the tunnels and kept on running, "YOU COWARDS! DO I HAVE TO DO THIS ALL BY MYSELF?" Mandark yelled at them, but they kept running.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Eddy asked, the Eds surrounded Mandark.

"A vampire?" Ed asked.

Mandark turned towards the Eds, "Foolishly foolish fools! I am Mandark! The one true genius of this world and now commander of Heartless!" Mandark announced.

"If you're such a genius, then how come you didn't lightning-proof your robots?" Edd asked.

"Lightning-proof? Do you know how much that COSTS? My allowance can't afford it!" Mandark yelled at him.

"Whatever, so you command Heartless?" Eddy asked.

"Just like that guy in the mask!" Ed pointed out.

"Guy in the mask?" Mandark thought to himself a bit, "Oh, you must mean _him_..."

"Who?" Edd asked.

"It doesn't matter, you won't live long enough to find out anyway! AH-HA-HA! AH-HA-HA-HA-AAAAAAH!" Mandark barely dodged Ed's keyblade as he threw it at him. Ed flicked his wrist and got his keyblade back. "How dare you throw that at me while I'm laughing!" Mandark yelled.

"Well, your laugh sucks." Eddy told him.

"SHUT UP!" Mandark punched in some keys on his chair, and the chair grew arms with what looked like a gatling gun for a right arm and a rocket launcher a left arm. A sort of glass formed over Mandark and his legs. It still hovered off the ground.

The gatling gun aimed at Eddy, and fired. Eddy quickly jumped out of the way. The rocket launcher aimed at Ed, and fired. Ed held his keyblade like a baseball bat and whacked the rocket heading for him, the rocket deflected off of Ed's keyblade and headed right back at Mandark.

"HOW DO YOU EVEN?" Mandark yelled as his own rocket hit his hover-chair. It was damaged a bit, but still operational. Mandark decided not to use the rocket launcher again and aimed the gatling gun at Ed, and fired.

Meanwhile, Dexter was trying to get his computer operational again.

"What's with the commotion Dexter?" Dee Dee had sneaked up on Dexter.

Dexter didnt turn around, "Well, if you must know, Mandark is trying to destroy my lab and those three showed up! Who are they?"

"Oh, they're the aliens!" Dee Dee told him.

"Do not be STUPID! They're human just like us!"

"Yeah, but they're from a different world. You blew up their ship earlier."

"I don't care! I just need to get this...there!"

The computer reactivated, _"Laboratory mainframe restored, all power back online. Initiating laboratory defenses."_

A large laser pointed at Mandark who was distracted with trying to shoot the Eds with the gatling gun, the laser fired and struck Mandark's battle vehicle, causing it to explode.

When the smoke cleared, Mandark stood covered in ashes with a lot of metal surrounding him. Mandark fell over.

"Ouch." Edd flatly said seeing Mandark fall over, he as well as the other two Eds walked over to him, followed by Dexter and Dee Dee. Mandark was still alive, this is supposed to be kid-friendly after all.

Ed picked him up, and gave him one good shake and set him back on his feet. Eddy walked up to him and pointed at his face, "Okay bub, what's the deal with you and the Heartless?" Eddy demanded to know.

Mandark shook the ashes off himself, and regained composure, "And why should I tell you?"

Eddy grinned, "Because we have the secret weapon. Oh Ed?"

Ed somehow got behind Mandark and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Huh? What? LET ME GO YOU BRUTE!"

"What are you going do with him?" Dee Dee asked.

Eddy thought for a bit,"Ed, season 3 episode 4b."

"Oh my, isn't that a bit too cruel Eddy?" Edd asked with a knowing grin.

"I'll be gentle." Ed told him as he lifted Mandark up, held him upside down..

Mandark was panicking, "Wh-WHAT ARE YOU DOING? PUT ME DOWN!"

Ed slapped Mandark's belly, "Pink belly!"

Ed did this a few times. Dexter didn't know whether to fear this happening, or find joy of having his nemesis be bullied by kids much bigger than him.

Mandark couldn't take much more, "Okay! Okay! I'll tell you! Just please stop this crazy- OOF!" Ed had let go of Mandark mid-sentence. Eddy stood over him.

"Then tell us what we want to know. How are you controlling the Heartless? Who was that guy in the mask? Who would win in a fight, Gordon Freeman or-"

Suddenly there was a discharge of energy in the area, the Eds looked up to see a dark portal appear. From the portal came the person in black skin-suit with the Heartless emblem wearing the black mask.

"It's him!" Ed exclaimed.

* * *

Kevin walked up to the Eds and looked directly at Eddy. Kevin recognized his face, but couldn't for the life of him remember who Eddy was. Kevin thought back to what his master had told him.

"_Using power over darkness does come at a price my dear boy. You may forget important things like who you are and what you are doing, among other things. Just try to focus that you are my pupil and that you are only doing this to benefit your dear friend...you don't want to let her down now, do you? With everything else, it's best to forget about them. Just remember what is important, and you cannot falter."_

Kevin shook the feelings of familiarity, and decided that whoever this person was, he was in his way to getting Nazz safe. Ergo, he must be dealt with.

* * *

The young man in the black mask raised his right arm, and a keyblade of darkness materialized in his hand.

"A keyblade?" Edd asked.

Before any of the Eds could react, the young man in the black mask raised the keyblade up, and dark energy shot out of it, harming the Eds with a much more powerful blast than they'd ever received before. The Eds were knocked back and stunned as the young man in the black mask dematerialized his keyblade and casually walked over to Dexter and Dee Dee.

"What do you want? What do you want from me?" Dexter asked with a mixture of anger and fear.

The young man in the black mask pointed at Dee Dee.

"What do you want her for?"

The young man didn't answer, he just grabbed Dee Dee by the arm and jumped back to the portal, and vanished.

The Eds got back up, the stunning having worn off, still hurt. Edd cast cure on the party, healing their injuries. "Are you two alright?" Edd asked.

"I'm A-OK." Ed told him, giving the OK hand sign.

"I'm fine...what was with that guy? Why did he have a keyblade?" Eddy's voice was a bit shaky.

"I have no idea Eddy. He seemed to be much stronger than us, yet somehow familiar..." Edd thought a bit.

"I do not care for who that was, but at least he took away my stupid sister and I can focus on rebuilding my laboratory..." Dexter told them as he went to his computer.

"What's that kid's deal?" Eddy asked Edd who just shrugged.

"I couldn't tell ya, probably best not to interfere, right Ed? Ed?"

Ed had walked over to Dexter and lifted him up by the collar, Ed was not happy.

"What is the meaning of this?" Dexter demanded.

"What's the matter with you? Don't you care about what just happened? Your sister was just taken away by some badguy with evil forces helping him! She could be hurt and all you care about are your machines?"

There was something about Ed that many didn't know about, but Edd and Eddy had figured it out after witnessing it a few times. Ed's head may be full of comic book, movie, and television knowledge that seems to cloud up Ed's mind, but when Ed gets angry, his mind clears right up. Very few things made him angry, a rock in his shoe, endangering his friends, and bringing up the Star Wars prequels are a few examples, but nothing made Ed angrier than the idea of a family member not caring for one of their own. Stopping Ed when he was angry was futile, and it was better to either let him vent it out on his own, or deal with what made him angry in the first place.

To make a long story short, Dexter was now on thin ice. He folded his arms, "Of course I care more about my inventions! It is my life's work! All my blood, sweat, and tears were used to make my wondrous creations and each day I would try to make them better and better but I just end up fixing them day in and day out because of that wretched girl!"

Ed gave Dexter a look of pure disgust, and set him down, "You're not a very good brother, or a nice person for that matter."

Dexter brushed him off, "Like I care about what an imbecile like you thinks."

"Ed, never mind him. Come here, we need your help." Edd told him in an assured voice. Ed calmed down and he went back to join the other Eds.

They went back to Mandark who stayed laying on the floor, "Alright then, let's get back to my questions..." Eddy looked at Mandark to see that he was in a pathetic position. He was on the floor, crying.

"Why...why did this happen? I didn't want this!" Mandark sobbed, "All I wanted...all I wanted was for Dee Dee to like me! I thought dressing up as a vampire and taking over the world would help that! Wah-ha-ha! Wahhh-ha-ha-ha-ha-AAAAAA!"

Eddy had smacked Mandark in the face to shut him up, "Boo hoo, we all got problems." Eddy told him, "You might as well face defeat with dignity and owe up to what you did wrong, you idiot."

Mandark rubbed his cheek, Edd walked over, "What my friend here is trying to say is that we'll leave you alone if you tell us what we want to know."

Mandark gritted his teeth and thought for a moment, "Okay, fine, I'll tell you."

"That's all very nice and all, but can you do it SOMEWHERE ELSE?" complained Dexter.

"NO!" The Eds and Mandark yelled back. Dexter grumbled and went back to fixing his lab.

Mandark cleared his throat, "Okay, look, it all started a couple of months ago..."

* * *

_I, Mandark, was planning out a way to get rid of Dexter for good. This time I created a bio-chemical material in the form of carnivorous jam was sure to do the job...but I spilled it in my OWN lab. That plan having failed, I spent the rest of the week trying to get my robots to clean the lab without being broken by the jam. It was then that I met him, the man in the cloak. He asked me if I craved power, and if I did, I should follow him and he would give me power. Sure, I was skeptical, but he broke into my lab without my machines noticing, so he must've been powerful._

_I followed him through a dark portal to some huge castle, that's where I met other people like me who wanted to control their worlds. It's also where that guy showed up, the one wearing that mask. The man in the cloak gave us all a special gift, the gift to control Heartless. But controlling them is hard for me, so I tried to focus more on my robots..._

* * *

"...and that's all I can tell you." Mandark finished.

"Why did that guy kidnap Dexter's sister?" Ed asked.

Mandark shrugged, "I have no idea, the man in the cloak said that they needed those who were 'pure of heart' or something like that."

They all could hear laughing from Dexter, "'Pure of heart'? If Dee Dee is pure of heart, then I'm the pope!"

The others just decided to disregard anything Dexter says.

"What did they need those 'pure of heart' for?" Edd asked.

"How would I know?"

"Well, the smart thing to do would be knowing why you were told to do something. Especially if it had something to do with some girl you liked." Eddy told him nonchalantly.

Mandark's eye twitched a bit, he covered his face with his hands, "How could I have been so STUPID?"

Ed patted Mandark on the back, "Don't worry about that, my mom asks me the same thing all the time..."

* * *

"You did not get rid of them?" the man in the cloak asked.

"I didn't see a reason to, they were harmless to the mission." Kevin told him, he had already put Dee Dee in a tube next to Muriel and Nazz.

"Looks can be deceiving. You had your chance to vanquish them there."

"Right...look, I'm not too into the whole 'killing' thing. Getting these people to safety and bringing Nazz back to life is my priority one."

The man in the cloak thought for a bit, then nodded, "As you wish...you are excused for the day."

Kevin turned and left, leaving the cloaked man to himself.

"...however, you'll soon to start seeing things my way. Yes...soon..."

* * *

While the Eds were busy pretty much saving the day, Rolf, Jonny, and Courage had gone out to find the parts of the gummi ship that was blown up by the Robo-Dexo, and start putting the ship back together. Sarah on the other hand was busying herself by watching "TV Puppet Pals" and raiding the fridge. The Eds and Mandark walked down the stairs from Dexter's lab, and they got to the door.

"Well, I suppose I should thank you for not hurting or humiliating me any further." Mandark told them.

"No thanks are necessary, just cash will do." Eddy told him.

"What?" Mandark was taken aback.

The Eds laughed, "I'm joking, your welcome."

Mandark sighed with relief, "Well I suppose I should give you something...a-ha! I know!'

Mandark reached into his pocket and pulled out a keychain with a wrench motif.

"What's that?" Eddy asked.

"I'm not really sure, one of my Mandark-droids found it in the tunnel they dug through."

"Oh! I know what that is!" said Ed.

"It does look like the one with the windmill...this one looks like a wrench..." Edd took the keychain and put it on his keyblade. The same thing that had happened with Ed's keyblade happened with Edd's, and as the light subsided, the keyblade had taken the form of what looked like a huge red wrench that still looked like it functioned as a key.

"Amazing!" Edd exclaimed in wonder at his new keyblade.

"Cool!" Ed said bluntly.

"So when do I get one of those?" Eddy asked.

Edd decided to name this new keyblade the "Genius Bruiser", mostly because it was a wrench as well as a weapon. It was around that time that Rolf, Jonny, Plank, and Courage came back.

"Ed-boys, Rolf has returned with the others and parts to the Ed-boy's ship! Though Rolf is not sure how to put it together!"

Mandark walked over to him, "Allow me, I know my way around machines, I'll also throw in a couple of upgrades!" Rolf, Jonny, Plank, and Courage followed him back out.

"Wasn't that nice of him?" Edd asked.

"You three! Get over here!" Dexter was at the top of the stairs.

"What do you want shortcake?" Eddy asked.

"Just get up here! There is something you need to see!"

The Eds looked at one another, "Should we go?" Eddy asked.

"I don't like him." Ed told him.

"We might as well go anyway, it'll take a while for the Ed-wing to be rebuilt." Edd pointed out.

"Wait, why isn't _he _fixing the ship? He's the one who blew it up!" Eddy exclaimed.

"Probably because he would just make the ship worse somehow if we had him fix it." Ed told him, expressing his logic.

* * *

The three Eds walked up to the lab to Dexter's computer, _"Greetings, I assume you are the keyblade wielders."_

"Did...did that computer just talk?" Edd asked.

"_Yes, you are correct."_

"Cool, artificial intelligence! Is there any cake?" Ed asked.

"_No cake."_

"Aww..."

"_I suppose you are wondering why I called for you."_

"Not really, I mean, we just have time to kill before our ship gets fixed. You know, the one the leprechaun blew up." Eddy responded.

"Hey!" Dexter yelled in protest to Eddy's name calling.

"_Right. As I was telling Dexter before, my scanner indicated a bit of familiarity with your keyblades."_

The computer screen displayed a sort of keyhole.

Ed pointed out the obvious, "Hey! It's a keyhole!"

"_Yes, do you know the relationship between these two?"_

"Well, basically-"

Suddenly before you could say "3D Sucks", the Eds keyblades materialized and aimed at the keyhole on the computer screen.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Dexter yelled, light came from the keyblades and the light hit the keyhole on the computer screen. There was a sound of a locking noise, and the keyhole vanished.

"_Oh! That was surprising."_

"What did you do to my computer?" Dexter angrily asked.

"We dunno." Ed told him.

"Besides, if we did, we probably wouldn't tell you anyway shortstack." Eddy joked again.

Dexter's teeth were grinding, "THAT'S IT! GET OUT!"

Through some kind of incredible strength, Dexter managed to kick the Eds out of his laboratory.

"Well, I for one have had enough of this." Edd told the others.

"Let's get out of here." said Eddy.

* * *

The Ed-wing had been rebuilt, although now it looked a bit bigger, and seemed to have a whole lot more weapons than they remembered.

"Do you like it? I figure more firepower would do well against the Heartless!" Mandark promoted.

"It's nice and all...but..." Edd was trying to be polite.

"Kind of a waste, we usually don't have problems with the Heartless ships." Eddy told him.

"Well, you probably were just fighting the easier ones, there's a whole lot more and stronger ones flying around the dark castle I was at." Mandark explained.

"That explains everything!" Ed shouted.

Edd got out the remote, "We might as well get going, we still have a long way ahead."

"Yes, we sure do." Mandark agreed, everyone looked at him.

"What?" Sarah asked.

"What, you did not think I was going to stay here, did you?"

"Well, considering we beat you up..." Eddy said lightheartedly.

"That's in the past, you are all going to go after that guy in the mask, right? If so, I'm going too, to save my beloved Dee Dee."

"Of course!" Ed exclaimed, "It's our duty to stop the Heartless, and anyone who uses them for evil!" Ed made a pose with his keyblade, trying to look like a hero.

"...what an idiot." Sarah bluntly said.

Ed went back into his corner, he was accompanied by Rolf and Jonny playing some smooth jazz on bongos and a keyboard and Courage making whining noises.

"Where did they get those instruments?" Edd asked.

Soon enough, the group got back into their rebuilt Ed-wing, and took off for another world.


	8. AHoE OMAKE Chapter 1

AHoE OMAKE Chapter 1

**For those of you who don't know the term, "Omake" is a Japanese term for a non-canonical extra, mostly used in Japanese comics (or manga, but I call them Japanese comics, easier to pronounce.)**

**The events in this chapter really have nothing to do with the overall story, but I just wanted to have a little fun and get some stuff off my chest.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**OMAKE # 1: The Best Part**

Edd, Eddy, and Mandark were all in the cockpit of the Ed-wing, looking over the modifications Mandark put on it.

"I have to say Mandark, the work you've done on our ship is most impressive." Edd voiced his approval.

Mandark soaked up the praise, "Why yes, I take pride in my work. With the automatic defense weapons, fighting the Heartless should be easy as finding the first fourteen decimals of pi."

"Yeah, whatever. Did you install that thing I asked?" Eddy asked.

Mandark nodded, "Yeah, that part was an easy add-on."

"Alright!" Eddy searched for it in the cockpit.

"What did he ask to install?" Edd asked.

"Truly, the best part of every vehicle!" Eddy told him after he found what he was looking for.

"...is that a-"

"Yep."

"And you're going to-"

"YEAH!" Eddy turned on the thing he found.

_"EVERYBODY'S WORKING FOR THE WEEKEND!"_

The stereo system worked like a charm, Eddy started dancing to the music.

"Now we don't have to worry about it messing with the ship's computer system." Mandark explained.

Edd put a hand to his face, "I'm gonna be hearing all these 80s songs...aren't I?"

* * *

**OMAKE # 2: Other Fanfiction**

Ed was using with one of the Ed-wing's computers, catching Edd's attention.

"Ed, what are you doing?" Edd asked.

Ed turned and smiled, "I'm checking out FictionFan to see if the next chapter of A Heart of Ed is up!" Ed was on the website FictionFan and was clicking around, looking for the story. His eager grin slowly turned into a disappointed frown.

"I can't find it Double-D."

Edd took over the computer, "Let me see if I can...huh?" Edd was stunned, he looked over all the fan fiction on the page under "Ed, Edd, n Eddy".

"...Ed...what is all this?" Edd asked in embarrassed confusion.

Ed looked it over, "It looks like fan fiction with you and Kevin...and umm...well..."

"Wait, wait, HOLD THE PHONE!" Eddy barged in, and took a look at the page. He then started laughing.

"What the? You and shovel-chin? That doesn't even _begin_ to make sense!" Eddy fell over laughing.

Edd covered his embarrassed face, "I don't get it either, me and Kevin have NOTHING in common!"

"Really? Plank and I would've said that it doesn't seem right since you're both guys." said Jonny who popped out of nowhere.

Edd covered the screen, "AH! DON'T LOOK!" he screamed.

Edd's hands were moved by Sarah, "Whoa, they writing raunchy stuff about my cutie pie and that grease monkey? This I gotta see..."

Ed pulled Sarah away, "No baby sister! It's too disturbing for your mind!"

Sarah started hitting Ed, demanding him to let go, Rolf came in and looked at the screen.

"Rolf had no idea that Double-Ed-boy had such perversions for Kevin. They threw rocks at you for that in my country." Rolf told him with a straight face.

"I DO NOT! WHOEVER WROTE THIS STUFF HAS NO IDEA WHO I AM! STOP LOOKING AT IT!" Edd screamed.

"Keep your shirt on, you don't have to be so defensive if it's not true." Mandark told him.

"WHY ARE YOU ALL IN HERE? HAVE YOU ALL COME TO MOCK ME?"

"No, they just came in because you're yelling Double-D." Ed pointed out.

Edd's face turned beet red. In a swift movement he drew his Keyblade and smashed the computer screen.

"...I'm not fixing that." Mandark told him.

Edd went back to his room after that, and kept telling himself that it was all the work of silly fangirls and none of it was real.

**Seriously though, why the EFF is there so many fanfics about Edd and Kevin? WHAT IS THAT, I DON'T EVEN!**


	9. The Most Obvious Solution

In the cockpit of the Ed-wing, Edd was in the co-captain's chair and Mandark was keeping watch on the new weapons that were automatic while Ed and Eddy were sleeping. Mandark and Edd were also locked in an epic battle of wits.

Edd was rubbing his chin, then calmly spoke, "Industrialism."

Mandark didn't have to think too much on his response, "Monopoly."

"Yield."

"Destruction."

"Nautical."

"Laser."

"Recollection."

"Notoriety."

"Yodeling."

"Gamma."

"Alpha."

"Alph-darn it!"

Edd laughed a bit, having won their little game, "That's three for me, two for you."

Mandark gritted his teeth, "Best four out of seven?" he asked.

"No thanks." Edd said as he turned his attention back to the course. They've been advancing smoothly enough with the new automatic firing system, although they haven't seen many Heartless ships for over five minutes. It struck Edd as sort of odd, but he was relieved for the break nonetheless. He kicked his feet up and tried to relax.

* * *

Down the way of the Ed-wing's route, another ship was patrolling the area for any of the Heartless ships. On the bridge of the ship were an assorted amount of girls who looked to be a bunch of kids, each of them wearing gear, each with a different number on it. In the captain's chair was a girl wearing a green sweater, an orange skirt, brown boots and what looked like a makeshift samurai helmet with the number 86 on it.

"Numbuh 77, have you spotted any more or them?" the number 86 asked with a Scottish accent.

A girl wearing a blue suit, rollerskating pads, and a yellow knit hat that had a pin that read 77 didn't turn her head, "No ma'am, it looks like they ran off."

"Good, we scared them vipers back to their nest! Now to make route back to Moonbase!"

"Captain! Something's up ahead! This one's different!"

* * *

"_**Warning! Warning! Foreign ship approaching!"**_the alarm Mandark installed sounded off and the ship that was full of the aforementioned girls came up on the Ed-wing's screen.

"That doesn't look like a Heartless ship." Edd pointed out.

"Indeed, it probably belongs to one of the locals." Mandark concluded.

"_**Weapons locked on, preparing to fire photon torpedos."**_

"_What?"_ Edd shouted in confusion..

Mandark scrambled with the controls, "I should've known this would happen!" Mandark tried to override the commands, but he was a bit too late as one torpedo fired at the ship. Edd and Mandark watched in amazement as this new ship evaded the torpedo and then charged _right at them._

Edd and Mandark screamed as what appeared to be tube slides shoot out of the incoming ship that had the letters KND painted on it, the tube slides broke through the ships walls and a bunch of little girls with what looked like mustard guns come out and aim at Edd.

"_Freeze, teenager!"_ yelled one of the girls.

Edd and Mandark looked at one another, and then they started laughing at the whole absurdity of what they were seeing. One of the girls then shot at Edd, mustard getting all over his shirt.

"_My shirt!_ Oh, it's gonna take _hours_ to scrub that out!"

That's when the girl with the number 86 came down, "Surrender your ship, boy! Make it easy for yourself!"

The Ed-wing had been captured by the Kids Next Door.

* * *

"Wow, this reminds me of issue number fourteen of_ I Was a Young Cabbage Rancher in the Heart of Quebec_ where Andre is captured by the Children of the Trees!" Ed said as he, Edd, Eddy, and Rolf were being led through the huge tree house on the moon.

"Shaddup!" yelled a kid who had some sort of laser-tag gun pointed at Ed, they all kept walking until they came to what looked like a jail with plenty of cells, most of them already filled with teenagers and adults and the like, some in strange costumes like one guy with toilet paper on his head. They came to an empty cell where the four were shoved in, and the door was shut and locked.

"...okay, what the heck just happened?" Eddy asked.

"I think we were put in jail Eddy." Ed told him.

Eddy looked at Ed with half-shut eyes, "You don't say?"

Edd sighed and asked "Where are the others?" to one of the kids who brought them to the cell.

"Your hostages are being returned to their homes now, but we're not done with you teenagers yet! So sit down and shut up!" the kid yelled back.

"Hey, don't you tell _me_ what to do ya brat! Now get me out of here!" Eddy yelled, his hands trying to get through the cell door.

The kid just shot Eddy with his laser-tag gun, Eddy quickly fell to the floor.

Rolf was closest, so he helped Eddy up, "Loud-screaming-Eddy! Are you alright?"

"Granddad, the police want you to pull over..." Eddy gasped before he passed out.

"Oh dear...well this certainly can't get any worse." Edd hoped.

* * *

In the central command of the moon base, the leader of the Kids Next Door, Numbuh 362 was talking to a commander of a KND sector.

"_They're everywhere! Most of the town has been swallowed by these things!"_ screamed one of the kids on a TV screen.

"Try to evacuate as many as you can, and get them to a safer area! Then get to Moonbase with the other evacuated sectors! I don't know what Father is planning this time, but if he's using those things then he'll be attacking here soon!"

The kids on TV started screaming again, and communication was lost. 362 pinched her forehead, trying to contain the stress of the situation.

"_It looks like you need some help."_

362 turned towards the voice she heard, "You're here!"

The five she was referring to were known as the team from Sector V. The one with dark skin, a red hat, a braided dark ponytail, and blue T-shirt was Numbuh 5. The one with the orange hoodie and Beatles cut blonde hair was Numbuh 4. The Asian one with a long green sweater with long dark hair was Numbuh 3. The chubby one wearing aviator goggles was Numbuh 2. The bald kid with dark sunglasses was their leader, Numbuh 1.

"We barely got out with our hides intact! What in the heck is going on?" Numbuh 4 asked.

Numbuh 362 shook her head, "I don't know as much as you do. Father just unleashed those..._things_ and everyone everywhere is being attacked by them! They've been spreading farther and farther since the last few hours. And if he hasn't directly attacked Moonbase soon, it's only a matter of time until he does."

Numbuh 1 thought for a moment, "That's strange, it's not like Father to launch an attack as unorganized as this."  
"That's what I was thinking, our science team have a feeling that whatever he unleashed, he can't fully control. They seem to be live creatures as well..."

A random boy wearing a green beanie cap with a pin that said B-14 on it ran into the area, "Numbuh 362, ma'am!" the kid called out.

"Not now Numbuh Base-14, we're having a meeting."

"Couldn't we just target Father? Maybe that will stop the creatures?" Numbuh 5 suggested.

"That's what I thought, but we can't FIND him. And that;s what scares me." Numbuh 362 told him.

"Numbuh 362!" yelled Numbuh Base-14, the others just ignored him.

"I wonder where he could be." Numbuh 3 said out loud.

"We should send out ships to scout for him." Numbuh 2 told 362.

"I already sent them out hours before, they found nothing." Numbuh 362 told him.

"_Numbuh 362! Father is on Moonbase!"_

Just then, a bunch of Heartless made their way into central command.

* * *

Courage, Jonny, Plank, Mandark, and Sarah were being led down a corridor by a couple of KND operatives who were trying to direct them to a KND S.C.A.M.P.E.R

"_Get your hands off me!"_ Sarah yelled at one of the KND.

"Listen here girly, we need to get you away from here, it's not safe!" the KND member told her as he put a hand on her shoulder.

Sarah kicked the poor kid so hard in the shins that he had to fall to his knee and clutch his shin, and cry out in pain. Courage screamed at this, which along with the shin-kicking stunned the other KND members.

"Is she always like this?" Mandark whispered to Jonny.

"Yeah, pretty much." Jonny whispered back.

The other KND members tried to restrain Sarah, this was definitely not a smart move as Sarah retaliated in just the way you'd expect from a child as violent as her.

Courage, Jonny, Plank, and Mandark stared in awe as Sarah stood above the more trained KND members were on the floor groaning in pain.

"What?" Sarah asked.

"...I'm just glad that's not us." Mandark told her.

Suddenly a red alarm turned on above them, with a voice on an intercom system started yelling "Intruder Alert!"

* * *

Eddy had snapped out of his electrical state, and the four teens were trying to figure out a way to open the door as the guards of the jail had run off when an alarm came on.

Edd was looking around the room, "There has to be something in here we can use, if we can find some wire or maybe something we can fashion into a lockpick! The lock they have on the door can't be too advanced, can it?"

"Yeah, I mean, these kids are all like, ten right?" Eddy asked.

A light bulb turned on inside Ed, "Why don't we just use our keyblades? Shouldn't they be able to open the lock?"

The four looked at one another, Eddy took out his keyblade and used it on the door. The lock opened, and so did the door.

"Ed, you're a genius!" yelled Eddy, thinking that he rarely got a chance to say that.

"Very good Ed-boy! Though Rolf expected Double-Ed-boy to figure out how to escape faster."

Ed scratched his head, "Me too actually, why didn't you think of that Double-D?"

Edd shrugged, "I'm not sure, mostly because the most obvious solution is never tried, like in Gilligan's Island where they simply could NOT build a new boat or patch up the hole in the one they had, it would've ended the series prematurely."

Eddy grinned, "Oh yeah, like the fact that Joel and the bots couldn't just leave the Satellite of Love because we needed them there to suffer for our entertainment."

"Yes, well, shall we go?"

The four ran out of their imprisonment and out of the jail area, they saw two of the KND guards taking cover and shooting at some Heartless that were up ahead. One of them saw the four approaching.

"Ah! The prisoners escaped!" he yelled.

"Oh great, like we didn't have enough problems!" yelled the other guard.

"_Out of our way!"_ Eddy yelled as the Eds ran past them to the Heartless that were new to the Eds. These ones looked strangely like dogs, but they were bigger, with fire red fur that emitted heat. A Heartless emblem could be seen on their underbelly.

One of them lunged at Ed, tackling him, and setting his jacket on fire.

"_Ah! Stop, drop, roll!"_ Ed yelled as he started rolling to get the fire out.

"_Freeze!"_ Edd yelled as ice shot out of his new wrench-like keyblade, the crimson canines made a high pitch whine and started backing off.

"Oh no you don't!" Eddy yelled as he threw his keyblade at them, he managed to hit one of them and it vanished into darkness. Although two more of them managed to get away.

"Drat! This doesn't look good." Edd observed, Ed got up, having the fire out now. Eddy got his keyblade back.

"Come on! We have to find the others! Oh, and Sarah!" he commanded.

"Leader Eddy, Rolf has captured the enemy!" Rolf announced, holding up the two KND members who were struggling to get free.

"Rolf put them down! They're just kids!" Eddy told him.

Edd then had an idea, "Wait! Excuse me, do you happen to know where the kids that-"

"Get bent!" yelled one of the KND members.

"Well that's not very nice."

"Guys! Over here!" Ed called out.

Edd, Eddy, and Rolf (carrying the KND members) walked over to see what Ed was seeing, a bunch of kids on the floor in a hallway. All of them in pain.

"Oh my..." Edd had cupped a hand over his mouth.

Ed couldn't believe what he was seeing, so he covered his eyes.

The stress got to Eddy, he put his arms behind his head and covered his ears, "Oh geez, were we too late?"

"No, please! Ah!"

Down the hallway, a kid was thrown into a wall, Sarah came into view, followed by Jonny, Mandark, and Courage.

"And next time I won't go so easy on you!" Sarah told the kid.

Edd breathed a sigh of relief, "It was just Sarah, not Heartless."

Edd was then tackled by Sarah, big surprise. Ed and Eddy decided to just let her at him this time.

"You four okay? We heard you were incarcerated." Mandark asked.

"No, we were put into a cell, not a car." Ed told him.

Mandark adjusted his glasses,"Uh...that's what incarcerated means. It means you were put into a cell."

Ed rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed, "Oh..."

"Did you guys find the ship?" Eddy asked.

Jonny nodded, "Yep! We found it a little while ago, but we had to find you guys first since we couldn't leave without you!"

Edd smiled, "Well that was nice of you all."

"Plus, we can't find the remote that controls it." Sarah added.

"Wow, we still have this thing? I thought we forgot about it." said Eddy, as he found the remote in his pockets.

"Right, and now that we got you and the remote, let's get out of this crazy place!" Sarah said as she started carrying Edd back the way the three had come from.

"Wait, we can't leave yet! These kids here need our help!" Eddy told her.

"What? Those kids took us from our ship, put you all in a cell, pushed us around, and they say the word 'number' wrong." Mandark pointed out

"Yeah, but this place still has Heartless! We have to get rid of them before anyone gets hurt!" Ed told him.

"They're right! These kids are in danger if we don't do anything!" Edd agreed.

Eddy handed Mandark the remote, "You all go to the ship and have it ready to go, we'll stay here and get rid of the Heartless." Eddy ordered.

"Why are you even helping them?" Sarah asked, "You know they are just going to be ungrateful and throw you in a cell again."

Eddy gave a smile, "You don't need a reason to help people."

Ed and Edd nodded, and the three took off down the hall.

"Don't get yourselves killed, you idiots!" Sarah yelled at them.

* * *

The KND were pushed back out of the command center, now scattered. There was, however, a small group making a defensive stand in the decommissioning room. They were the members of Sector V, along with Numbuh 362. All of them firing into the single open door across one of the four bridges connecting to the center of the chamber while blocking off the other three.

"Shouldn't we shoot down the bridge?" Numbuh 4 asked.

"Forgetting the fact that some of them _fly_, I'm pretty sure a couple of them would just jump across." Numbuh 5 told him.

The six KND members kept firing their weapons which seemed to be lasers made up of what a normal person would consider junk, but a glass soda bottle attached to wood can be a laser whenever you want it to be. The point is really, that the lasers did hold the many Heartless back, but they didn't seem to give up going after them.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Eds were fighting even more of the crimson canines that we are going to call Cerberus from this point on. Their tactic was to have Ed distract them as Edd and Eddy freeze them, but the Cerberus were too fast to directly hit, and Ed was getting tired of having his clothes set on fire (though those fires were put out quickly by Edd) so the Eds decided to just move on, and try to find the one who's controlling the other Heartless.

"There has to be something or _someone_ who's directing these Heartless! It was the same with the last couple of worlds!" Eddy had deduced.

"I think they're looking for something." Ed announced.

"What makes you think that?" Edd asked.

"Look, the Cerberus have been running around in packs of three. If they were just going to go after everyone, then wouldn't there be more?"

Edd thought over Ed's theory, it _did_ make a bit of sense."Maybe, but what could they be looking for?"

"The Pure of Heart!" Eddy declared.

Suddenly, a wall of fire appeared in front of them all, stopping them from running.

"_Found you."_

The Eds turned around to see what looked like an adult man who's body was all black, and on fire. This man was named Father.

"That can't be comfortable." Edd remarked.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Eddy asked.

"Nega-Human Torch?" Ed guessed.

Father shot fire at the Eds, they all tried to dodge it, but the fire singed Edd's hair a bit.

Ed ran towards Father, and swung his keyblade at him, but the fire coming from Father managed to block the attack and counter with a burst of fire.

"_Ah! Not again!"_ Ed started rolling on the floor to get the fire out of his jacket.

"_Blizzara!"_ Edd yelled as he shot ice towards Father, but Father shot fire right at the ice and turned it into steam.

"You're wasting my time, I have more important matters to attend to." Father said as he summoned more Cerberus along with elemental Heartless and a new type of Heartless that was like the Soldier but with a sword and more armor. Father himself went through the fire and vanished into darkness.

Edd and Eddy got ready to battle the Heartless that showed up, seeing that they were now trapped with them. Ed was supposedly behind the Heartless and they couldn't see him.

"Ed! You okay?" Edd called out.

Just then, an Armored Soldier was thrown towards them and into the wall of fire Father created.

"A simple 'yes' would've suffice!" Edd told him.

There were a bit too many of the Heartless in such small space, Edd kept throwing ice spells and Eddy threw his keyblade at the Heartless but this wasn't taking down as many as they wanted. A spark of inspiration then hit Eddy.

"Double-D! Use your ice on my keyblade!" Eddy ordered.

"What?" Edd couldn't believe what he heard.

"Trust me, I got an idea! Freeze it when I let go!" Eddy had arched his arm back, ready to throw his keyblade. When Eddy let go, Edd cast Blizzarra on the keyblade, causing the keyblade to have ice properties and easily break through the Heartless that had trapped them. When a path was made, Edd and Eddy ran through it and met back up with Ed who was missing his jacket. The three got away from the large group of Heartless and started running down more corridors.

"Ed, what happened to your jacket?" Edd asked.

"It burnt up, had to get rid of it." Ed told him.

* * *

The Heartless being held back by the six KND members were getting larger in number, "There's too many of them! We have to get away!" yelled Numbuh 2.

"Okay! Someone go open up one of the blocked doors!" ordered Numbuh 362.

"I got it!" Numbuh 3 said as she ran back to one of the blocked doors, removed the fortifications that were made when the six got into the chamber. Soon enough she got the door open.

"How polite, and I was just about to break it down." Father said as he grabbed Numbuh 3 by the hood. The others saw this, Numbuh 4 dropped his weapon and ran towards Father, "Kuki! Let her go!"

Father just took a step back and made a wall of flames.

"Let me go!" yelled Numbuh 3 as she tried to hit and kick Father. Father put up a hand and let out some sort of dark aura, putting her to sleep. Father then turned and walked away.

"Numbuh 4! Get the other door open!" yelled Numbuh 1, snapping him out of his trance. Numbuh 4 ran for the other door and quickly got it open, letting in the Eds.

"Launch!" yelled Eddy as Ed threw his keyblade at the Heartless, Edd granting it an ice attack as well. This dealt with the Heartless that were pouring into the chamber. Ed and Eddy then went on to keep the Heartless as bay as Edd tried to evacuate the kids.

"Please, there's no time to explain, you kids need to-"

"Hold up, aren't you those teenagers Numbuh 86 picked up earlier?" questioned Numbuh 362.

Edd sighed, "I suppose, but please listen! You are all in danger and need to get away from here!"

"Double-D! There's more of them coming! Hurry it up!" Eddy yelled.

"We need to hurry and stop the Nega-Human Torch!" Ed added.

"You mean Father?" asked Numbuh 2.

"Who?" Edd asked back.

"Tall, dark, shoots fire?" Numbuh 5 described.

"Yeah, him!" Eddy answered, "He's the guy who's controlling these things! We gotta take him out!"

"He went this way!" Numbuh 4 pointed at the wall of fire.

Edd quickly doused the fire with his ice magic, "Okay, we'll go after him and you kids need to-" Numbuh 4 was already running down the corridor. "Wait! Come back!" Edd called after him.

"Double-D, we have to go!" Eddy yelled as he ran over to the door Numbuh 4 just ran into, "Come on Ed!" Ed ran towards them, "You kids too, follow us!" Eddy prompted the KND. Everyone started running down the corridor that Father and Numbuh 4 had went through. The Heartless following behind them.

* * *

They got to a room with three doors. After everyone got in, Ed shut the door behind them, and this somehow kept the Heartless from coming in. Don't ask why, the same thing sorta happens in the game. Numbuh 4 was in this room, he was on the floor, trying to stand up.

Numbuh 1 helped him up, "Numbuh 4! Which way did Father go?"

Numbuh 4 pointed towards one of the doors, groaning a bit.

"That door leads to...oh no." Numbuh 362's eyes grew wide as her voice filled with concern.

"What? Where does it go?" asked Eddy.

"The central reactor core. It generates power throughout the Moonbase!"

"You don't think...is he planning on destroying it? But without power, the Moonbase's primary functions of oxygen and gravity will fail!" said Numbuh 2, giving exposition.

"Is he insane?" Edd yelled, "There's still a lot of kids on this thing!"

"It is not of this world Double-D! Nega-Human Torch is pure evil!" Ed yelled in dramatic fashion.

"Didn't you hear us before? His name is Father." Numbuh 5 told Ed.

"Evil like that doesn't _deserve_ such a title!"

This statement put the room in silence. Eddy opened the door that led to the reactor, "Well, we'd better put a stop to him!"

"You can count on us to back you up!" Numbuh 1 told him as the others nodded in agreement.

Ed and Edd stood by Eddy as he shook his head, "No way, if this guy is using the Heartless, then there's a good chance he can't be hurt by your weapons. You'd better stay here, we'll be right back."

The Eds went through the door and down the corridor, Edd noticing that the temperature was getting hotter and hotter as they went down the corridor. The corridor itself was eerily empty with nothing but a glowing of reddish orange that no doubt came from Father. The three Eds ran into a large room where fire was all around, the three could barely see the young man in the black mask go through a dark portal with an unconscious Numbuh 3. Father turned around to face the Eds.

"You are far too late, the girl has already been taken to a place where she will be of better use to us."

"What's your problem? Are you so messed up in the head that you're willing to hurt children?" Eddy asked.

"Children? Heh, heh, you talk like they actually matter."

The Eds couldn't believe what they were hearing, "You monster!" Ed threw his keyblade at Father who put up a wall of fire to block it.

"Insolent brat! I'm not a pushover like that emo kid with the stupid laugh. Do you really think you can handle the likes of THIS?" Father was hamming it up as he raised his arms up and the fire around them grew more and more, stronger and stronger, hotter and hotter. The Eds had to use their blizzard spells to keep them from melting, but the fire wouldn't go out.

"Let's try that one move again!" Eddy told Edd who nodded, Eddy got ready to throw his keyblade, and yelled out the command word. "Launch!"

Eddy threw his keyblade at Father while Edd cast Blizzard on it. The keyblade flew right at him as he put up another firewall. The keyblade got stuck in the wall, and Eddy called it back, dropping it as it was on fire and yelling out that it was too hot to hold onto.

"Too hot for ya kid? How about we turn it up a notch?" Father caused the fire to get even more stronger.

Edd's mind scrambled madly. It was getting hotter and hotter in the room, it being harder to breathe.

"Wait, that's it! FIRA!" Edd shouted as his wrench-like keyblade spouted fire into the air.

"How is that going to help us?" Eddy asked.

"Trust me! You'll see! FIRA!"

Ed and Eddy shrugged, and started casting their own fire spells. Eddy more than Ed since Ed had trouble concentrating with the fire all around him. The room got even more hot, making it harder and harder to breathe as the room was loosing oxygen. Then, the fire started to die down.

"_NOW!" _Edd yelled, Ed and Eddy nodded as the both threw their keyblades at Father.

"_BLIZZARA!" _Edd froze the keyblades, Father tried to put up another firewall but there wasn't enough oxygen for him to create more fire. Instead, the keyblades pierced right through him, causing him to yell out in pain. Father fell to the floor, all the fire from his body gone.

"No...no...no! I can't be beaten by a bunch of lousy kids!"

"_BLIZZARA!" _the Eds yelled in unison, causing Father to be encased in ice. His angry face made permanent in the ice. The Eds started to breathe a bit more as the air flow started to return to normal, the three heroes looked at one another, all three exhausted and a bit burnt from the battle, their faces black with soot, they looked at Father and the expression he was making in the ice. It was all too much, the three friends started laughing, Eddy rolled on the floor a bit and Edd was trying to use Ed as a support to keep himself up.

* * *

"Little bit further, big guy!" Eddy instructed as Ed pushed the frozen Father into a very cold and very secure cell. There were KND operatives running around everywhere as they regrouped and organized their numbers, and Edd had already went to the Ed-wing to see if it was ready to go. Numbuh 362 walked up to Ed and Eddy.

"I feel I speak for all of us when I say that I apologize for what happened." Numbuh 362 pulled out a small box, "And to thank you for saving us all, our tech lab has decided to give you this."

Eddy opened the box, inside was a keychain that had a motif of a 2x4 wood with the letters KND engraved on it. The keychain resonated with Eddy's keyblade, and he attached it causing his keyblade to transform into a more wooden key with metallic technology here and there on it.

"Alright! Got a name for this thing?" Eddy asked.

Suddenly, a computer voice was heard.

"_**Kids Next Door: K.E.Y.C.H.A.I.N. - Key Enhancement Yanking Countless Heartless Annihilating Into Nothingness"**_

Ed and Eddy looked around in confusion, "Where did _that _come from?" Ed asked.

"It's best not to ask..." 362 told him.

The three of them started walking down the corridors of the Moonbase.

"So, we're going to be looking for Numbuh 3 too?" Ed asked.

"That's right Ed. First that old lady, then that blonde, and now some girl named after a number ." Eddy told him.

"Her team is taking it pretty hard, especially Numbuh 4. I know it's asking a lot, but will you all keep an eye out for her?" 362 asked.

Ed and Eddy exchanged a glance, "Don't worry, we'll find her." Eddy promised.

"Of course, we're heroes!" Ed exaggerated.

362 laughed a bit, "Well, whoever you are, you sure managed to take care of Father."

Ed and Eddy grinned sheepishly, a radio Edd had given Eddy sounded off.

"_Ed? Eddy? The Ed-wing is ready to go."_

Eddy told Edd that they'd be right there, he put away the radio.

"It's time for us to go now. It's been nice...uh..." Eddy couldn't recall her name.

"Call me Rachel." 362 said with a smile.

"That name sounds familiar." Ed thought out loud.

"Well...hey, what's that?" Eddy pointed outside, on the base of the moon was a giant keyhole.

* * *

"My pawns are falling, one after another." said the man in the cloak to Kevin.

"Yeah, but we already got what they were giving us." Kevin told him as he put the unconscious Kuki into a tube.

"Yes, but those other keyblade wielders are getting closer and closer to finding out what we're doing, and once they find out, they may aim to stop us."

Kevin turned towards the cloaked man, "Why would they want to stop us?" he asked.

"I suppose since you've obtained half of the Pure of Heart needed, I can tell you. The way to destroy the Heartless lies in the Heartless' own world, and that world lies in the Dark Realm, and entrance to the Dark Realm is strictly prohibited by those who are less than lenient with the keyblade." Kevin was nodding, understanding what the cloaked man was saying, "You see Kevin, there is legends that say of a doorway to the Dark Realm by way of gathering seven who are Pure of Heart and having them all in the same place. Only then, the door will be shown...with the right preparations of course."

"What preparations?"

The man in the cloak chuckled,"No offense, but they are far too advanced for you to understand in whole. You'll know it when it happens."

Kevin sighed, "So what do you want me to do?"

"I want you to see if you can defeat them at the next world they go to. Whether you can or not, make sure to at least test their power."

Kevin nodded, and turned for his room.

The man grinned under his cloak.

* * *

The Eds sealed the keyhole on the moon from the Ed-wing, and sat back down in the cockpit. Everyone else was in there too, Jonny sitting on the floor, Rolf leaning against the wall, Sarah over the top of Edd's chair, Courage was sleeping on Ed's lap, and Mandark was tinkering a bit with the computer system.

"...there, I disabled the automatic firing system so no more accidents can happen." Mandark told them, "Though, you need to operate them manually again."

Ed smiled, "That's okay! It's fun shooting down the Heartless ships!"

Edd sighed in his seat, "We've been incredibly busy lately. For once, I'd like to relax."

"Yeah, with the constant Heartless attacks, the ship being blown up and captured, and us always running around, can't we take a break for at least a little while?" Jonny asked.

Eddy thought for a bit, "Yeah, how about we head back to Cartoon Central? We can rest up there and try to figure out what to do next."

Edd typed a bit on the navigation computer, "This may be the perfect time to field test the warp drive Mandark and I have been working on."

"Warp drive?" Sarah asked.

"Yes, it was a gummi I bought in Cartoon Central, but I haven't gotten a chance to get it to work. It's supposed to bring us back to places we've been in an instant." Edd explained.

Mandark looked over another computer screen, "The virtual testing shows that it may work. Everyone better hold on to something, it's going to get bumpy."

Rolf was scratching his chin, "Rolf does not understand though, what is this center of cartoons?"

Eddy chuckled a bit, "It's better if you find out for yourself."

Edd initiated the Warp Drive, and a form of light appeared around the Ed-wing as it vanished from the KND world.

The group was unaware that there was a stowaway on the Ed-wing.


End file.
